“The unwilling were tasered or had their papers signed for them”: Russia’s fall conscription drive reaches new levels of brutality

RU

The fall 2024 draft campaign is the last to operate without Russia's yet-to-be-launched electronic summons registry. Once the system is up and running, avoiding enlistment will become much more difficult. For now though, the draft proceeds under the old rules, with enlistment officers resorting to any means necessary in order to meet their quotas. This fall, the Kremlin has tasked the army with drafting 133,000 people — 17,000 fewer than in the spring, but still enough to require a large-scale hunt for potential conscripts.

For their targets, the risk of being sent to war has increased significantly. While conscripts cannot legally be deployed to participate in military operations in Ukraine, several of them have nevertheless been killed and injured on the front lines since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Previously, their participation in the war was concealed — even as recruits were dying under fire in Russia’s border regions and occupied Crimea — but conscripts now are directly threatened with deployment to the Kursk Region, where more than 120 soldiers called up for compulsory service were reported missing or captured in the first month of Ukraine's incursion. Publicly available information (1, 2) — and the combatants themselves — testify that the death toll is even higher.

This reality does little to increase the draft's popularity. Instead, it has led enlistment offices to act more aggressively. Aside from the all too familiar tactic of “same-day transfers to the assembly point” — a practice that gained traction in the fall of 2022 — conscripts are subjected to beatings, handcuffing, detention at enlistment offices, and are coerced into signing contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense on the spot.

Shocked with tasers and forced into uniform

In the final month of this year’s draft, young men are being seized everywhere — on streets, in the metro, at bus stops, and in food courts in malls across the country. Raids have also targeted student dorms (1, 2). The Get Lost project (“Idite Lesom”) reports that at least 125 raids on conscripts have been recorded across Russia so far.

Elena Popova, a coordinator for the “Conscientious Objectors” movement, points out that enlistment offices are focusing on two groups: individuals who were drafted during the spring campaign but evaded service, and those contesting draft decisions made this fall.

Popova emphasizes that, for the first group, any draft rulings regarding fitness to serve should have been voided as soon as the spring campaign concluded:

“All rulings not enforced during the campaign — whether due to illness, lawsuits, or dodging — are automatically canceled by the Regional Draft Commission at the end of the draft. But Loktev [the Moscow military commissioner] ignores this.”

These conscripts are being sent to the army without proper enlistment proceedings, violating Russia’s Military Medical Examination Regulations. Popova explained:

“Loktev believes that if a draft decision was made in the spring, the individual’s fitness category remains valid, and they can be sent to serve without a new medical examination. But this is fundamentally incorrect. The Regulations require updated diagnostic results before deployment. A person’s health condition could easily change within six months.”

Previously, conscripts challenging a draft ruling would not be sent to service immediately, but significant amendments to the Law on Military Service in fall 2024 changed this:

“The law no longer requires a suspension of enlistment activities for those appealing the Draft Commission's decision in court. So the draft order remains in effect. People now petition courts to impose injunctions prohibiting enlistment offices from sending them [to the army] until a ruling is made. But judges are largely refusing, claiming no rights are being violated. ‘You go serve, and we’ll decide here whether the draft was legal or not.’ When people receive a rejection ruling, they file individual appeals, but no one cares: you’re slammed face down onto the hood of a car, clapped in handcuffs — and off you go to the army.”

In Moscow, the work of local draft offices has been simplified via the introduction of a Unified Draft Point (“Ediniy Punkt Prizyva” or EPP). The local authorities are flaunting it as an innovation “accelerating and simplifying all procedures related to conscription into military service.” In reality, however, it only expands opportunities for breaking the law: “It’s a massive body where responsibility is completely blurred, which creates fertile ground for violations — when people unfit for service, who have had non-draftable diagnoses for years, are declared fit.”

Moreover, according to Popova, the introduction of the EPP has changed the rules for interacting with the draft office — now all conscription procedures have to take place at the Unified Draft Point, and authorized representatives are no longer allowed to accompany prospective call-ups:

“Before, people would come to medical exams with authorized representatives — it didn’t matter who the power of attorney was issued to: their mother, wife, or a friend. Several people would come as a team. When there was a conversation with the doctor, it was harder for them to break the rules in front of a trusted person. Now though, at the EPP, they block the entrance and don’t let anyone in.”

The likely reason behind this change in protocol is simple enough to imagine. According to Popova: “The conscript should not be left alone. If he is, it is very easy to manipulate him.”

At first glance, in such a situation, it might seem safest for vulnerable Russian young men to stay home — or to avoid being registered with the draft office altogether — but neither option can fully protect a conscript. In Moscow, four men who were not registered for military service were held in a detention center for two days and then taken to the draft office. Dozens of other men subject to conscription have been forcibly taken from their homes since the start of the campaign (1, 2).

For instance, Artur Novik, a student at the Higher School of Economics, was forced to leave his apartment and was grabbed right on the stairwell. When unknown assailants tried to drag Novik outside, they hit his grandmother — causing her to fall and strike her head. “Two unidentified men started aggressively banging on the door, even though they knew a pensioner was inside. They cut the power in the fuse box, plunging the apartment into darkness, and taped over the peephole. They waited until I stepped out to turn the lights back on, then surrounded me, claiming I was a draft dodger and had to immediately follow them to the police station,” Novik told the Get Lost project. Despite having a legal deferment, Artur has ended up serving in the Taman Division. Thus far, he has been unable to challenge the actions of the police and the draft office.

There seems to be next to nothing young men like Novik could have done to avoid being forcibly conscripted into the Russian military. Technically, it is not illegal to decline to open the door to the police, but often enough officers simply force their way in. This is what happened to the brother of Moscow resident Oleg (name changed for privacy). Oleg explains that the police burst into their apartment completely unexpectedly:

“They came around noon and started ringing the doorbell. My mother refused to open, but they broke the lock and came inside. They justified their intrusion by claiming the apartment was municipally owned and, therefore, they had the right to enter whenever they pleased. They tried to intimidate everyone. My mother stood in the hallway, yelling and trying to block their way, but they pushed her aside harshly, leaving bruises on her arm, and made their way inside [the home].

My sister started recording everything on her phone. Three men came in. They identified themselves as Nikolai Igorevich Yakushev, a sergeant from the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki [District] police department, and Alexander Balashov, the senior district officer. With them was a plainclothes man — a bald guy who refused to identify himself. We later realized he was from the draft office.”

According to Oleg, his brother was home sick at the time: “He had a medical note from a urologist dated November 15 stating he needed two months of treatment, but they dragged him out of the apartment, threatening everyone, including the children. My mother tried to protest, and they shouted at her. It was blatant harassment of an elderly woman — and a mother of many children.”

After the ensuing confrontation, Oleg's brother was first taken to the police station, then to the draft office:

“My brother demanded a warrant or any paperwork showing he had been summoned, as the police claimed he had, but they showed nothing. They forcibly took him, saying they would issue a fine for failing to appear and then release him. Instead, they took him straight to the draft office. During all this, his underage sister was with him. They threatened her with a juvenile detention center, and the bald man in the apartment shoved her so hard to get her out of the way that she almost fell.”

Later, Oleg’s mother arrived at the draft office. They told her her son would be sent to the Unified Draft Point on Yablochkova Street. Instead, he was taken to an assembly point near the Ugreshskaya metro station in the southeast of the city. All of the medical documents Oleg’s mother presented were ignored.

According to Oleg, while at the assembly point in Ugreshskaya, his brother stayed in contact with the family and described what was happening there:

“He didn’t have a button phone with him, so he used other boys' phones to call us. At first, they promised that once he passed the medical exam, they would give him a draft notice and release him until his official appearance date. But nothing like that happened — he was never sent home.

We kept insisting that he should avoid putting on the uniform for as long as possible. But he told us that he saw several guys whose families had probably also advised them not to comply — they were tasered. My brother, seeing this, said, 'I probably won’t risk it. If the outcome is the same, I’d rather stay in one piece.' He put on the uniform and passed the medical exam.

He said there were so many people that you couldn’t even move — about 100 men were brought in nearly every few hours. Just a massive crowd. They sat in horrible conditions all day, and, according to him, many were beaten.”

Oleg adds that the medical exam was nothing more than a formality: “My brother said they just asked if he had any illnesses. He said, 'Yes.' They replied, 'Then we’re sending you to Tambov,' and that was it. He insisted he had intestinal disease and acute urological problems, but they ignored all that. On Dec. 1, he was sent to Tambov, to the electronic warfare unit.”

The family now fears the young man will be sent to the Kursk Region:

“My brother called and said they were being threatened with deployment to Kursk, where fighting is taking place. Straight from training. We hope this is just intimidation, but no one knows for sure. I know this unit works with drones and various combat UAVs, so I’m afraid they might actually send them into combat.”

The conscript’s family also fears he will be coerced into signing a contract, which would give the Russian military the legal right to send him into Ukraine:

“The scariest thing is that they might sign it for him. My brother told us that at Ugreshskaya, when people refused to sign, the paperwork was simply signed for them. It was done in seconds, and the men were immediately sent away. There were more unwilling guys who held their ground until the end, but they were either tasered or had everything signed for them and were taken away.

We keep telling him not to cave into any threats, even if they threaten us. He agreed, saying he’ll insist on needing treatment and will try to get transferred to the infirmary.”

“You’re not going anywhere — we’ll send you to Kursk”

The easiest way to catch potential conscripts is by approaching them in public places: shopping malls, metro stations, bus stops, or simply stopping them on the street. Russia’s security forces have carried out raids like these in Moscow and St. Petersburg since the first days of the draft — and they’ve only gotten more frequent as the Dec. 31 deadline approaches.

“I exited at Arbat [metro] station. At the intersection, after the underground passage, there was a checkpoint — they were checking documents. I didn’t think much of it — [it seemed like] just a routine check — and handed over my passport [to the policeman]. He looked at me and asked, 'What about your military obligations?' I thought: well, that’s it, I’m finished,” recounts 25-year-old Artyom (name changed for privacy).

Artyom says he was taken to a police van. Soon thereafter, another detained man was brought in. At the next checkpoint they picked up a third. All were taken to the draft office on Mantulinskaya Street. As Artyom describes:

“The draft office was completely insane. Some people were crying, others were in shock. Next to me stood a man — completely pale, a blank expression on his face. Another young guy was visibly distressed — he works in film, rents an apartment with his girlfriend, and now his whole life turned to sh*t in an instant. His name was Matvey, and he was really unwell. I was in a daze, too.”

Artyom says a friend managed to snap him out of his shock by messaging him before his phone was confiscated: “My friend said I shouldn’t just go along with it. I thought: 'Okay, guys, I’m out of here,' and headed for the exit. They had my passport, but I thought: 'To hell with it.' I started pulling on the door, but it was on a magnetic lock and wouldn’t open. The woman controlling the button ran after me, yelling that I wasn’t a man and was behaving like an idiot. She called the police.”

According to Artyom, they started threatening him with a criminal case for draft evasion: “Then some woman came up and asked, “What’s your name?' I said, 'Are you seriously asking my name? You took me from Arbat, took my passport, took my phone, and now you’re asking for my name?' I didn’t say anything. She left, came back with some form, and said they had opened a case against me.”

Another conscript, 19-year-old Alexander, was also grabbed directly from a metro station. In October, he filed a lawsuit to challenge his fitness-for-service category, citing serious vision problems. Alexander skipped his draft summons and left for the city of Tula, 120 miles south of Moscow.

According to Alexander, on Nov. 11, he returned to Moscow to check the status of his lawsuit and to request a follow-up medical examination. He was on his way to the EPP when two policemen approached him at the Mendeleevskaya metro station:

“They asked for my documents, and I was half-asleep, not thinking — I just handed them my passport. One of them looked at it and said, 'Yep, it’s him,' and immediately: 'Come with us to the police room.' They cuffed me right away — the officer holding my passport handcuffed my arm to his — and led me up the escalator. They didn’t return my passport. I demanded it back, but they said they would only give it back in the police room. I asked them to remove the handcuffs, but they said it wasn’t allowed.”

When Alexander was brought into the police room, he was placed in a holding cell:

“They didn’t show me any detention reports. They searched me — patting me down, checking my pockets, and asking me to hand over my phone. That’s when things started to go off the rails: they searched me and locked me in a cage. I asked for a protocol to be drawn up for the search, but they said, ‘We’re just checking to make sure you don’t have any knives and won’t stab us.’ When I asked why I was being detained, they didn’t give me an answer — they just cited some section [of the law] and said the facial recognition system had flagged me.”

Alexander spent about an hour in the holding cell before new officers arrived and transferred him to another station, and from there to the assembly point on Ugreshskaya Street:

“They didn’t tell me where they were taking me: ‘We don’t know ourselves; our task is to deliver you to this address.’ The address turned out to be Ugreshskaya. They led me out of the car and through the gates, where military commissariat staff were waiting for me. They were bringing in other guys too — in large numbers. The officer who escorted me from the car went inside with me. There, they searched me again. I had an e-cigarette — they took it away, saying, ‘That’s it, you tell it goodbye to it,’ and the police officer handed my phone over to some other staff member.”

At the assembly point, Alexander said that the act of accepting his belongings was signed on his behalf:

“In the tent where they were searching me, they handed me a form and said, ‘Sign here to confirm you’re handing over your phone.’ I read it and saw that it stated I was voluntarily handing over my phone for safekeeping. I refused to sign, saying I shouldn’t even be here and that my phone had been stolen. They tried to force me, but I flatly refused, so they signed the document for me.”

When all the conscripts were being sent for a medical examination, Alexander decided not to comply and gripped a chair with his hands:

“They brought us to a corridor where all the doctors were sitting and said, 'You’ll be heading to the army now, so you need to pass the medical exam.' They started calling us in one by one. I sat there in my coat, holding onto the chair in case they tried to drag me in by force. I said I refused the medical examination. Then a man approached me and started asking why I was refusing. I explained that I had filed a complaint at Yablochkova and shouldn’t be here.

He started trying to convince me: 'Nothing will happen; if you’re unfit, you’ll just go home — just take the exam.' But I knew it was a lie: they’d just beat me and send me off to serve.

But he kept pressuring me: 'What, do you think you’re special? Look, all the other guys are going through it — are you better than them?' Then he switched to threats: 'If you ended up here, you’re not getting out. We’ll send you off to serve somewhere near Kursk.'”

According to Alexander, those who resisted the examination too aggressively were sometimes beaten: “There was a guy next to me who agreed to the medical exam. But when they tried to shave him, he started acting crazy — rolling on the floor, trying to jump out the window. For that, the Rosgvardiya officers beat him.”

After all the confrontations, a lawyer was sent to speak with Alexander:

“I explained everything to him and told him my demand — that I wanted to undergo a follow-up medical examination (KMO). The lawyer checked something on the court’s website and said the best he could offer was to take the KMO now, and if I was declared fit, they’d issue a draft notice for deployment in three days.

But I just needed to get out of there — of course, I wouldn’t have gone to any deployment. They allowed me to see the ophthalmologist. I showed all my medical documents and lawsuits. The ophthalmologist ordered an additional examination at a hospital, and I was given a summons for November 20. That was a miracle because there were about twenty of us, and only two were released. One of them had a broken leg; the rest were sent to serve.”

“They dragged me out of a taxi, cuffed me, and hauled me back to the draft office”

To find conscripts, Russian security forces often resort to tricks: they ambush potential draftees while dressed in civilian clothing — or even while posing as municipal service workers. On Dec. 9, police officers showed up at a university dorm in Moscow dressed up as a utility crew. Last year, they even posed as potential buyers on Avito, Russia’s version of eBay. Roman (name changed for privacy), came across one of these “civilians”:

“There was a car near the entrance. A policeman in civilian clothes ran after me. I covered about 200 meters before he caught up with me, grabbed me by the backpack, and held on. I asked him to show me his badge and ID, demanding that he call a proper unit so we could file a detention protocol. He pretended to, but kept holding onto me, not letting me escape.”

While being held, Roman tried to call lawyers and relatives: “In the end, I got through to my boss first — ironically, since September, I’ve been working at an enterprise fulfilling a state defense order, and I have a deferment, but no one cared. My boss raised the alarm and started figuring out how to help me.”

After waiting for around half an hour, Roman realized the policeman had lied to him: a car arrived, and inside was another officer — also not in uniform, but with an ID. Roman was taken to the district police station and then to the assembly point: “By that time, I had already called everyone, and my mom and girlfriend went to wait for me at Ugreshskaya. They brought all my medical documents with them. I was lucky that the policemen I encountered were a bit passive — they didn’t immediately take my phone away, so I was able to call everyone.”

According to Roman, near the assembly point, he managed to stall the process:

“When we arrived at Ugreshskaya, they led me to the gates. There’s one door for ‘law-abiding’ people, so to speak, and another for those brought by the police — through the iron gates. And they don’t accept anyone without a passport. I said I didn’t have my passport, even though the policemen knew I did — but for some reason, they didn’t press me.

They tried saying things like, 'Why are you lying?' — but I kept insisting I didn’t have my passport. Then they said they’d run my details through the system, called their colleagues, and ordered a certificate with my information. We waited for these officers to bring it. And that’s when I had the brilliant idea of calling a taxi and escaping — technically, they’d done their job, and they had no legal grounds to hold me by force.”

However, he ultimately failed to escape by taxi:

“My mom was already there, and I used her phone to call a taxi. But as soon as I got in and we started moving, those two realized I was leaving and stopped the car. They dragged me out by force. I told them, 'Okay, okay, I’ll get out on my own,' but they said, 'No, we’re pulling you out now,' and they just dragged me to the ground, cuffed me, and hauled me into their car. They told my mom they were taking me to the prosecutor’s office, so she went there too. But instead, they just drove further away and waited for their colleagues to arrive with the certificate.”

When the officers obtained the necessary documents, Roman was brought onto the grounds of the assembly point and handed over for inspection. Afterwards, he was told to wait for a fluorography exam: “There was a small truck outside where they were doing the fluorography. I decided not to comply, as I had been advised by the Conscientious Objectors I was in contact with.”

When Roman began refusing to undergo the fluorography, they sent Rosgvardiya officers to deal with him:

“I was left alone. Some captain approached me and asked, ‘Why are you sitting here? Why aren’t you going through the process?’ I said that I had been brought here illegally, that I had a deferment, a non-draftable diagnosis, and a pending application for alternative civilian service (AGS). He called the Rosgvardiya. At first, they tried to persuade me: ‘Serve for a year, and you’ll be back; everything will be fine.’ But then they started using physical force.

I told them: ‘Either hit me since that’s what you came for, or leave me alone.’ In the end, someone told them to drag me to the medical exam, and they tried to lift and carry me. But maybe I was too heavy for them — they couldn’t lift me, and it turned into a struggle. I started resisting, they started hitting me, threw me to the ground, twisted my arms behind my back, and then I just lay there. I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Eventually, they gave up on the idea, and after that, a Rosgvardiya officer just sat with me. That captain came back several times and kept threatening me.”

Finally, the authorities sent a lawyer to speak with Roman: “I explained everything to him and told him I had a deferment from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. He started digging through my personal file. At the same time, he said that officially, there’s no deferment for employees of the defense industry, but they grant it because the president said so. Then he came back, told me they had found me in the lists and could let me go, but they still issued a draft notice — for Dec. 25.”