Russia launches street raids to catch men for future assault units, reports say
Photo: Mobilization in Russia (Getty Images)
In Russia, security forces are conducting street raids targeting certain categories of men, after which they forcibly compel them to sign contracts, according to the Russian news portal Agentstvo.Novosti.
Authorities in the Penza region of Russia have begun using a new method to recruit for the army. Security forces are now specifically targeting men with debts and criminal records right on the streets or intercepting their vehicles. They are even forcing those detained on the street while intoxicated to sign contracts.
According to the wife of one of the forcibly mobilized men, her husband was handed a notice of a 76,000-ruble credit card debt and given a choice: go to the front voluntarily or be sent there as a prisoner.
The woman said her husband signed the documents only after he was threatened with violence against his family.
"They said, ' If your wife goes any further, your family will suffer,'" she noted.
Signing contract under threat of violence
Another Russian woman recounted that her husband was detained while traveling between towns. Bailiffs stopped his car, took him to a police station, and, even after confirming he had no outstanding debts, still transported him to the military registration and enlistment office in Penza. She is convinced that her husband signed the contract after being beaten.
"They beat him, they thrashed him. Very badly. He would never in his life have signed a contract… He has a son from his first marriage. Every day, his son would tell him, 'Don’t even think about signing the contract,'" the woman said.
She also said that for her husband to sign the contract, they issued him a new passport at the military registration office.
"The day before yesterday, he called to say they were already in Rostov, and yesterday he called to say he was in Mariupol," the Russian woman said.
Human rights activists note that this is a fundamentally new approach by the Russian authorities. While in 2022–2023 men with criminal records were forced to sign contracts during their routine visits to the police, the authorities have now shifted to targeted raids.
CNN reported that Russia was finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new soldiers to fight in the war against Ukraine. Even substantial monetary rewards and promises to write off debts are no longer ensuring a sufficient influx of volunteers, which is creating problems for the country.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the Kremlin was preparing for a new wave of mobilization to compensate for losses on the front lines. According to him, the Kremlin has set a goal of increasing the size of Russian forces by at least several tens of thousands of soldiers.
