1/ Russia's Tomsk State University has secretly created a 'mobilisation station' for its students and staff, to be activated within two hours of receiving the codeword 'Lineyka-222' ('Ruler-222') from the military enlistment office. It's the latest sign of a new mobilisation. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian news outlet 'We can explain' (MO) has published a leaked memo from the university administration. It instructs a number of officials to set up a mobilisation station at this student dormitory on Tomsk's Fedora Lytkina Street.
3/ The officials are ordered to prepare "to conduct organised and timely notification, collect citizens who are in the reserve and are to be called up for military service, and send them to a citizens' assembly point".
4/ According to the memo, "the station will start to operate within two hours after receiving from the Tomsk military commissariat the signal "Lineyka-222".
5/ In four hours after that messengers should leave the station, including students, at the rate of one messenger for ten mobilisation orders. The messengers should be allocated by the head of the I.V. Chepurin military training centre.
6/ It also orders that "two cars with sufficient fuel reserves should be at the disposal of the station at all times."
7/ A source has provided MO with a letter from the Ministry of Education and Science to all educational institutions in Russia. It orders that they "must make continuous preparations for mobilisation measures."
8/ The ministry has reportedly "already approved lists of organizations that carry out mobilisation reservations and sent them to interdepartmental commissions for exemptions – but the lists are being kept secret."
9/ This follows earlier reports that Russian universities were compulsorily registering their students and staff for military service (see thread below), and follows many other signs that Russia is preparing administratively for more mobilisation. /end
1/ The Wagner Group's 'human wave' attacks, which have left the area around Bakhmut and Soledar strewn with the bodies of dead Wagner fighters, have been described in detail by a Russian source. It explains the brutal calculations behind Wagner's seemingly suicidal tactics. ⬇️
2/ The 'Russian Criminal' website, which is linked to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, reports what a source – likely within Wagner – has told it about the mercenary group's approach to using recruited convicts to attack Soledar, sustaining huge casualties along the way.
3/ "The most experienced and well-prepared group of stormtroopers comes first, with excellent equipment. It's comprised of eight men, each with a 'Bumblebee' [possibly meaning an RPO-A Shmel thermobaric rocket launcher, effective against fortified positions].
1/ The governor of Russia's Trans-Baikal Territory, Alexander Osipov, has signed a decree promising a reward of up to 3 million rubles ($42,848) for capturing or destroying a Western tank in Ukraine – but has admitted that local residents may have to pay for it. ⬇️
2/ Osipov's decree applies to people who either come from Transbaikalia or are members of military units stationed there. It sets out a sliding scale of rewards for capturing or destroying Leopard and Abrams tanks – though interestingly, Leopards are valued more highly:
3/ 🔺 Capture of a Leopard – 3 million rubles ($42,848)
🔺 Capture of an Abrams – 1.5 million ($21,423)
🔺 Destruction of a Leopard – 1 million ($14,282)
🔺 Destruction of an Abrams – 500,000 ($7,141)
1/ As the likelihood of a new Russian mobilisation wave increases, corrupt Russian officials are reportedly offering a new service for a fee: making sure that your personnel file gets 'lost' at the military enlistment office. No file, no mobilisation for you! (in theory). ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel says that a "new unofficial service" has appeared: "Outside Moscow, the service to simply "lose" a personnel file at the military enlistment office costs around 400,000 rubles ($5,666). In the capital, the price tag is higher."
3/ Russia's military bureaucracy is still, even now, largely paper-based, which is why there have been so many arson fires at enlistment offices – the culprits hope to destroy the paper records they hold.
1/ Civilian workers sent from Russia to carry out construction tasks in occupied parts of Ukraine – many of them migrants from central Asia and Africa – complain that they are living in poor conditions, aren't being paid what they were promised, and were lured by 'deceit'. ⬇️
2/ Over the past few months, Russian companies have been bringing large numbers of workers into eastern and southern Ukraine, supposedly to carry out repair work on civilian facilities but in reality to dig trenches and other defences. Now they're complaining publicly.
3/ As the independent Russian SOTA Telegram channel reports, Russia has been carrying out a 'Special Infrastructure Project' alongside its Special Military Operation in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Construction has established a department to oversee it.
1/ If Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had succeeded in 2022, Ukraine's industries would have been seized and taken over by Russian oligarchs. A leaked document shows that oligarch Konstantin Malofeev intended to create a 'DMZ Concern' from Ukraine's largest plants. ⬇️
2/ Malofeev is a billionaire who is a close supporter of Vladimir Putin and an aggressive promotor of religious conservatism. He's an overt monarchist who reportedly sees Putin as a new Tsar, and has links with far-right parties and individuals in Europe and the US.
3/ The EU, US and Canada have sanctioned Malofeev for trying to destabilise Ukraine and finance separatism. He's closely linked to pro-Russian separatists and was the former employer of Igor Girkin. He's been accused of funding radical nationalist movements across Europe.
1/ The war in Ukraine is coming home to Russia in the form of a major upsurge in violent crime involving firearms and explosives, and the smuggling of weapons into Russia by serving soldiers. ⬇️
2/ Russian government statistics, reported by the independent Russian media outlet Verstka, show that the number of crimes involving explosives are have doubled in a year while those involving firearms have increased by more than a third. Verstka reports:
3/ "Weapons, ammunition, explosives, explosive substances and imitation devices were used illegally 5,546 times in Russia during the first 11 months of 2022. This is a significant increase over the past seven years.