1/ The independent Russian media outlet SOTA reports that police in Moscow and the surrounding region are raiding hostels, restaurants and offices to indiscriminately round up men for mobilisation.
2/ According to SOTA, the Travel Inn and Polite Elk hostels in Moscow were both raided, with the former being raided twice. It reports that "On the first day, the security forces took away everyone born in 1995."
3/ "Passports were confiscated in the [police] station from those who had previously served and summonses were issued to appear with things at the assembly point the next day at 9.00. At the same time, non-serving men were released."
Another 4 men were seized in the second raid.
4/ At the Polite Elk hostel, "security forces tried to hand summonses not only to Russians, but also to people with Donetsk People's Republic passports who were in one of the rooms."
5/ At a restaurant in Balashikha (see video above), "they blocked the men's way out of the Claws and Tails restaurant and tried to serve them demands to report to the military enlistment office, but without any [authorisation] stamps."
6/ An office building in Moscow called 'The Village' was also raided. An eyewitness said: "Police officers walk up and down the floors and take away men of conscription age. In the morning there was one paddy wagon, it was stuffed and a second was brought."
7/ "They took our administrator and other men who were on the ground floor. [Men] are caught in the corridor. Three policemen came to our reception." /end
1/ What's life like for newly-mobilised Russian troops in their barracks and temporary accomodation? Terrible, from all accounts, with no heating, no food, no sleeping bags, no hot water, no toilets, freezing tents, bedbug-infested mattresses and no training. 🧵 follows.
2/ The independent Russian media outlet Verstka reports on the experiences of mobilised men from Ufa and Chelyabinsk, two major cities in west-central Russia. The family of one mobilised man named Semyon spent about 40,000 rubles ($625) to equip him for the war.
3/ Semyon and others from the region were sent to a training centre in Elani near Yekaterinburg. To his shock, there were not enough beds and no food at all. He told his family that the only food the mobilised men had was what they had brought with them.
1/ Mobilisation news: The Russian Telegram channel "Watch out for the news" (ON) reports that released convicts in Moscow are being told to come to offices of the Federal Penitentiary Service on various pretexts and handed mobilisation notices, even if they're not eligible.
2/ "One of them, a category B inmate with an unexpunged criminal record for a particularly serious crime, was invited to the inspectorate under the pretext of a lecture by a psychologist. On the spot he was handed a summons directly to a collection point in the Museum of Moscow.
3/ If he refused to collect it, they threatened to call in operatives from the criminal investigation department.
1/ The Russian media reports that 12 suspects in the 8 October attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea have been identified and 8 arrested. They all appear to be linked to a truck cargo that the Russians say caused the explosion (see below).
🔴 Samvel Azatyan, his sons Georgy and Artyom, as well as worker Yuri Postnikov. Samvel and Azatyan are co-owners of Agro-Business, a company in Armavir, Krasdonar region. Artyom is a lawyer in Simferopol, Crimea.
3/ The truck cargo was delivered to their warehouse by an Armenian trucker and taken to the bridge by a Russian trucker. According to the Russian authorities, Artyom called his father to ask him to accept the cargo for a day on behalf of a friend.
1/ Here's a summary timeline of the account I posted earlier from Armenian, Bulgarian and Russian media reports on the movements of the cargo that reportedly exploded on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea on 8 October (see below).
2/ I've marked the country from which each statement comes:
(A) Armenia
(B) Bulgaria
(R) Russia
3/ 1. Early August - cargo despatched from Odesa to Bulgaria. (R) 2. Cargo arrives at Ruse, Bulgaria via Romania and is transported to Burgas on the Black Sea (B) 3. Cargo departs Burgas on 25 September. (B) 4. Cargo arrives at Poti, Georgia on 26 September. (A)
1/ With the news today that Russia has arrested eight people as suspects for the bombing of the Crimea Bridge on 8 October, I thought it would be useful to try to piece together a full account of the Russian narrative, as I've not yet seen it in Western sources. Long 🧵 follows.
2/ I'm not endorsing this account – aspects have already been disputed – but it's worth looking at what regional media reports are saying. The Russians say that a truck bomb caused the blast; western experts have endorsed this theory (see below).
3/ According to the Russians, the cargo was sent from Odesa in Ukraine to Ruse on the Bulgarian border in early August 2022. It travelled via Romania and likely Moldova, sent under a contract with Kyiv-based company Translogistik UA to a company called Baltex Capital SA.
1/ Cold and hungry newly mobilised Russian troops are stuck on the street in Tver tonight (current temperature: 3C/38F) because nobody is letting them into their training base. Who will save the mobiks? Translation from 'Military Informant' follows. ⬇️
2/ "We were approached by a relative of one of the mobilised reservists with a video showing military personnel simply being left in front of the gates of the Training Centre of the Military Academy of Aerospace Defence in Tver without any further explanation or instructions.
3/ The assembly of mobilized citizens began around 05:00 today, after which about 100 people from Veliky Novgorod and St. Petersburg were bussed to Tver by 16:00.