1/ The independent Russian media outlet Verstka ("Layout") reports that the Kremlin has secretly ordered Russian regions to mobilise several times more men than publicly announced. Regions are said to have been categorised according to their "protest potential". 
2/ Each region is supposed to mobilise 1% of its total reserve, but according to Verstka up to 3-4% are to be mobilised in some regions. A Kremlin source quoted by Verstka says, "It depends on which region – protest or non-protest."
3/ "In non-protest regions, for example, in the Caucasus, they can take more."
Russia's 24 republics are principal targets. People drafted from "remote places and villages" are judged unlikely to block roads: "That's why it happens there that an entire village is taken away".
Russia's 24 republics are principal targets. People drafted from "remote places and villages" are judged unlikely to block roads: "That's why it happens there that an entire village is taken away".
4/ The regions have been ordered to find a recruitment "margin" of on average about 1.5% above the official 1% quota. Verstka's source says that "given the zero training of the majority [of those mobilised], they may not last long, and the Kremlin may need more human resources."
5/ Verstka also provides an interesting explanation of how the mobilisation effort is prioritising who to target, which is worth quoting at length. It suggests that the system's incentives are causing the less experienced to be prioritised rather than valuable specialists.
6/ "An interlocutor close to the leadership of one of the regions explains the way the lists are compiled as follows: military registration and enlistment offices of course try to recruit people in categories A and B (fit without limitations and fit with minor limitations), but…
7/ …there are not many of them, and it is often very difficult to find them. Therefore, most recruitment offices focus on the three categories "A", "B" and "C" (limited fitness) who are all mobilized at once."
8/ "The summonses are issued first and foremost to those who are easier to find at their place of residence or residence registration."
9/ "If a person is registered at a certain address, his children go to the local school or kindergarten, and he himself votes at a district polling station, representatives of the military enlistment office "prioritize him" ...
10/ Military registration and enlistment offices try to look for conscripts with the right military specialties as a priority ... but this is "as much of a luxury" as the "A" category ...
11/ Therefore, the military commissioner is more likely to decide to throw his forces into finding a man with an unpopular "B" speciality than for a category "A" representative whose whereabouts are unknown".
12/ "This is why they do not round up the most suitable people, who may take months to track down, but those who [can be] caught." /end
This graph and map from @CITeam_ru highlights the regional disparities in mobilisation: Krasnoyarsk is shown to have recruited 5.5% of its reserve, as against a national average of 1.2%. Other regional disparities are very clear.
Story here: storage.googleapis.com/istories/stori…
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