The Russian army is not doing well at the front. She needs more soldiers to succeed. Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to declare general mobilization or war on May 9. This did not happen. But, as the BBC Russian Service found out, “hidden mobilization” has been going on in Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.

All the last weeks, the military registration and enlistment offices have been bombarding men with subpoenas with an invitation to “military registration”. For some, such visits end in Ukrainian captivity. Advertising for short-term contract service is becoming more and more intrusive. Some employers are looking for specialists to help prepare for “wartime activities”, others are trying to “book” valuable employees, protecting them from being sent to the trenches until covert mobilization becomes apparent.

The BBC reveals how Russian men are being lured into the army as companies try to protect their employees and prepare to go into the military.

“I tore it up, threw it away,” – this is how three BBC interlocutors disposed of the received subpoenas. The letters that the military registration and enlistment offices sent them after the start of the war with Ukraine are worded as a carbon copy: the recipients are invited to the military registration and enlistment office for “military registration” and “confirmation of residence and registration.”

That is why the military registration and enlistment office is waiting for a 27-year-old resident of the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine and Belarus. He lives at the registration address, where about three weeks ago a summons arrived – the first since he served as a conscript several years ago. The man threw her out, and that was the end of the story for now: “everything is fine, no one is looking, no one comes.”

The military registration and enlistment office first remembered the 26-year-old resident of Moscow’s Koptevo this April. Like the BBC interlocutor from the Bryansk region, he ignored the invitation to “appear at the military commissariat for a re-registration of documents.” So far – without consequences, despite the categorical tone of the agenda.

A “proposal” to appear at the military registration and enlistment office “to clarify military registration documents” was also found in her mailbox by a resident of Moscow (the BBC has a copy of the letter). True, the summons was not addressed to her, but to her neighbor: the sender mixed up the apartment numbers.

The recipient is offered to visit the military enlistment office “to clarify military registration documents” on the basis of the law “on mobilization”, and not “on military service” – the latter is referred to in some subpoenas that the BBC has.

The same agenda was received – for the first time in 16 years – and ignored by a 44-year-old Muscovite, a reserve lieutenant after a military department at a university (the BBC has a letter).

Military records are kept in peacetime, this is a standard procedure. Mobilization is announced by the president by his decree. It contains all its parameters. For example, it can be general or partial, on a certain territory, Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group, explained to Meduza, recognized in Russia as a foreign agent.

Mobilize, he says, those in the reserve can. These are those who have served in the army, graduated from a military university or are “limited fit” (“thrown” from the army or did not get into it because of the delay, men over 27 years old), as well as women with military specialties. Young people under 27 who have not served in the army are not mobilized.

A military lawyer who helps clients evade conscription told the BBC that he has recently given about a thousand consultations in connection with subpoenas. He noted that since the beginning of March, the military registration and enlistment offices began to actively call in “reserves” for military registration. Previously, he says, this was not the case. The lawyer recalls that until mobilization is officially announced, it is impossible to force a person to go to the front.

Not all the recipients of the summonses ignored them – perhaps they did not know that such an option existed. This follows from the testimonies of Russians who were – according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – captured.

In videos published by the SBU on YouTube, four people introduce themselves as reservists and say that in the first days of April they were invited to the military registration and enlistment offices and “mobilized” there. The men claim that they were promised work in the rear – someone was supposed to deal with humanitarian aid, someone – to sweep the streets and sort out the rubble.

Then everything developed rapidly. One of the heroes says that the next day after visiting the military registration and enlistment office, he was taken by plane from Yekaterinburg to the Rostov region.

He would be sure that for 150-200 thousand rubles a month he goes to unload humanitarian aid and restore houses in the self-proclaimed LNR and DNR. But instead, he, as part of a platoon of 25 people, ended up in the village of Zolote, not far from the town of Popasna, Lugansk region, which at that moment was stormed by Russian troops.

The platoon spent the night there. The next day, representatives of the so-called people’s militia of the LDNR ordered them to occupy the empty trenches. As soon as the recruits did this, fire was opened on them, after which they heard the voices of Ukrainian servicemen and surrendered.

The man in the video assures that he was “mobilized”. But, judging by his other testimony, in fact he was a “volunteer.” He probably received a summons, came to the draft board, and there he was persuaded to enter the service under the contract.

With each passing day, the Russian army is increasingly recruiting contract soldiers, and the “advertising campaign” for short-term service – of which agendas can be part – is becoming more and more intrusive.

“Stability, ample opportunities for self-realization, a decent standard of living and a high social status” – all this promises a young man from the Tver region a selection point for military service if he goes to serve as a contract soldier. In recent months, two letters of this kind have already been sent to him, his mother told the BBC (the editorial office has a copy of one of the documents).

The contract is proposed to be concluded for a period of three months. “Money allowance from 130,000 rubles,” the letter says. The number “1” is neatly added to the printed “30” with a pen.

According to his mother, the addressee was not impressed by this financial argument. “He served in 2019 under St. Petersburg. He was a driver,” the woman says about her son. “He said that the cars were not suitable for use in order to drive at least somehow, the batteries were rearranged from one to another. The car itself is like painted plastic.”

According to her, even then “pressed” on her son to sign the contract. But he refused: “he said that he would never again contact the army.”

In addition to the amount with the assigned unity, the terms of the contract indicate the ability to choose a place of service. But this seems to be a formality. The BBC correspondent called the number indicated in the letter, and the duty officer who answered the call said: short-term contracts – from three months – are offered “for participation in a special operation.”

In early April, the BBC reported thousands of vacancies for contractors, including those to be sent to Ukraine. From the beginning of April, they began to appear on completely civilian aggregators – HeadHunter and SuperJob – and, as the BBC was convinced, their number is not decreasing. Either there is no hype, or instead of closed positions, new ones are published.

“In general, to be honest, in the military sense, everything is done absolutely pointlessly, but very Putin-style: to do something and do absolutely nothing at the same time,” this is how a former soldier who took part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine explains the meaning of covert mobilization in 2014. He himself had already lost five acquaintances from the school in the current war: “two died near Gostomel, three were tankers.”

“One of these days we will attack London, but so far we have taken only Popasnaya,” he ironically. “So far, as far as I know, it has been decided to move on our own. Although the General Staff seems to be insisting through the Security Council: we can’t cope, they say, with NATO without mobilization.”

It is not surprising that the structures of the Ministry of Defense have to take the initiative into their own hands and literally advertise contracts.

Letters with offers to get a short-term contract – three, six or nine months – are pouring in on men not only in Tver, but also in the Leningrad region. Lieutenant Kozhevnikov, who was on duty at the local selection point for contract service, told the BBC correspondent about their distribution (who called such points under the guise of an applicant).

Under the contract, you can go to the “sea fleet”, to the “twelfth department of the Ministry of Defense” (responsible for nuclear technical support and security), but first of all, of course, “for a special operation,” said Kozhevnikov. These contracts are the most profitable. Salaries start at 200 thousand, while in the Navy and in the “twelfth department” – from 40 thousand rubles.

“They [this department] have many units throughout the country, these are the people who are in charge of the nuclear shield of our homeland,” Lieutenant Kozhevnikov tried to “sell” an unprofitable vacancy.

Sergeant Perepelkin, who was on duty at the same selection point in the Novgorod region, confirmed that short-term contracts are now being offered primarily for participation in a “special operation.”

What exactly the applicant has to do depends on his specialization: “if you get into the repair battalion, you can stay on the territory of Russia, and if, for example, you are a sniper from God, then God himself ordered you to participate,” Perepelkin explained.

When it came to discussing salaries, he decided “not to cheat”: you can count on good money “if you find yourself” behind the ribbon “. If you serve in Russia, the salary will be in the region of 35-40 thousand.

While the Russian military struggles to send at least some into the trenches, others – “peaceful” – employers are trying to protect their employees from such a fate.

Immunity from it is called “armor”. By issuing it, the organization secures valuable personnel in case of a call for mobilization. “Armors” can only be made by those who carry out state orders during the war, ensure “the defense capability and livelihoods of the population” or – the most general category – “are endowed with such powers.”

Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some employees of Vnesheconombank (VEB) collected the numbers of military IDs and the specialties that are listed there, a source close to VEB tells the BBC. After that, these employees received “stamped paper confirming that their military ID was accepted for registration of armor from mobilization,” he says. The press service of VEB BBC claims that the information about the “armor” is not true.

Unlike thousands of Russians, personnel officers who know how to issue such “armor” and keep other near-military documentation will not face difficulties in finding a job in the near future.

As the BBC has seen, over the past month, about a thousand offers for “specialists in military registration” have appeared on job aggregator sites. 700 such vacancies have been published on hh.ru alone, and 230 of them have been posted in the last week.

The names of some of the vacancies are formulated in this way: a specialist in “mobilization work”, “in military registration” or “in staff booking”. In others, these skills are hardwired into the description of the functions of the “HR Specialist”.

Basically, such employees are looking for budgetary institutions, “private” vacancies are few. For example, a specialist in military registration is needed by Global Truck Service – it repairs trucks of various brands – and by Sportmaster . Among the other functions of the employee, who is promised to be paid about 70,000 rubles before taxes, are “arranging reservations” and “communication with military registration and enlistment offices.”

Organizations always keep military records – this is required by Russian law – and hire employees for it. But “armor” in peacetime, as a rule, is not dealt with.

In early April 2022, employees of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University were called to the “military mobilization department” of the university (the BBC has a copy of the invitation letter, the faculty’s press service did not respond to a request). But first of all, not to verify the data, as it used to be before, but to “carry out activities for booking citizens” for the period of mobilization and in “wartime.”

In Tyumen, data on military service employees of organizations is also collected “in connection with the booking.”

An employee of another faculty of Moscow State University told the BBC that he had not received such invitations this year. But before they came from year to year. One of them, for 2016, he showed the BBC. The recipient is asked to come precisely “to verify data” on military registration. The note does not say anything about booking – this is the main difference from the letters that were recently sent out at the Faculty of Economics.

“Even at the end of February, the boss began to repeat that it was necessary to issue “armor” as soon as possible. It didn’t sound like he knew for sure that there would be mobilization. Rather, he wanted to make sure just in case, ”Oleg (name modified, the present is known to the editors), an employee of a research institute subordinate to one of the federal ministries.

According to Oleg, the booking system at his institute works like this: employees give their military tickets to a “special person inside the research institute”, who goes to the military registration and enlistment office and submits documents. After some time, he returns military tickets with a stamp confirming that the specialist is “booked” by the organization.

Apparently, just such a “special person”, as Oleg calls him, was recently hired by the Moscow research and production center “Vigstar”. This is a developer of satellite communications for defense needs (the corresponding vacancy was published in early April, and has been archived since May 7). The employee’s functions include “interaction with military registration and enlistment offices and higher organizations” on issues of “mobilization training.”

Merlion, a major distributor of IT and household appliances, also needs such a frame. He will have to assemble a file with the data of employees: marital status, knowledge of foreign languages, military specialty, and so on. Another task is the “mobilization preparation” of the company.

“Reservation” of employees and “military registration” is the minimum program for personnel officers, who are now actively sought by employers. The maximum program includes the preparation of enterprises for work during the war.

For example, in the Novosibirsk organization “Modernization and Development of Transport Infrastructure” (ironically abbreviated as “MiR”), such an employee will, in addition to personnel matters, prepare a plan “to provide the enterprise with labor resources in wartime.”

But more often for such tasks they hire individual specialists. The BBC has found dozens of fresh offers on job aggregator sites for those who will transfer enterprises to mobilization rails.

The titles are worded differently: “leading specialist”, “security officer”, “civil defense specialist”. The BBC specifically did not take into account vacancies if the description was not only about defense, but also about fire safety or the fight against covid.

But most job descriptions are unambiguous. For example, the Federal Tax Service is looking for a security officer who will prepare the service for “activities in wartime.” The same wording in vacancies from the Krasnoyarsk subsidiary of Rosneft and the mental hospital in the Ivanovo region – it needs to be prepared for mobilization and “evacuation measures.”

Some organizations hope not to hire new specialists, but to retrain existing ones. Since the beginning of the war, dozens of tenders for advanced training courses in the field of “mobilization training” have appeared on the public procurement website, the BBC Russian Service found.

Customers – government agencies at the level of regional administrations and municipal authorities, as well as budgetary organizations: hospitals, institutes, cultural centers. The leaders in terms of the number of purchases are St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. St. Petersburg cultural center “Troitsky” ordered a training program, which is called: “transfer to work in wartime.”

Judging by the tenders, the governments of the Chelyabinsk region and Buryatia want to refresh their knowledge in the field of “mobilization preparation” as soon as possible. The Komi administration has already purchased laptops “with licensed software for mobilization training,” and the administration of Syktyvkar – buses that will take employees to certain events related to it.

“We are not talking about real mobilization,” VEB employees are sure, who are now being issued “armor”, said a BBC interlocutor close to this structure. In their opinion, this is done “just in case.”

Many people would like to be protected from mobilization – albeit not officially announced. Employees of four large companies (Yandex, Tinkoff, MTS, Sberbank), with whom the BBC Russian Service spoke, admit that the prospect of being at the front scares them. But there is no mass “booking”, as well as other preparations for mobilization, at least in the “just in case” format, in their companies.

Officials from Yandex and Tinkoff told the BBC they were indeed not preparing for mobilization (Sberbank and MTS did not respond to requests). But they assure that they are ready in every possible way to help employees in the HR line if they have questions related to it.

The topic of possible mobilization is discussed informally with management – direct or, in the case of Yandex, higher – in all four companies. “They constantly ask both HR and khurals (as the company calls general weekly meetings),” says a Yandex employee. But they are offered nothing but general benefits for IT companies.

“Of course, everyone was worried and asked questions starting from February 25,” says the head of one of the MTS IT projects. “Many were sitting on their suitcases or had already left. The situation was tense.” According to the interlocutor of the BBC, some of his colleagues were reassured by the news about the “delay for IT people.”

We are talking about a government decree that exempts employees of IT companies from conscription (the rules for deferment are formulated strictly, you have to try hard to get under them). It will not protect against mobilization.

While some employers are cautious in discussing mobilization with employees, others are positioning their willingness to make a “booking” as their hiring advantage.

The Chernyshov Moscow Engineering Enterprise is part of Rostec and specializes in the creation of aircraft engines. It immediately reassures applicants that it “arranges the booking of the position” if they successfully pass the probationary period ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ).

“Armors” are not promised in all vacancies, but mainly in technical ones: mechanics, milling machines, electricians. In the very first paragraph of the job description, it says: “booking” will give exemption from conscription “for military service for mobilization.”

It seems that “reservation” from mobilization can become no less important element of the social package than medical insurance or paying for vacation tickets.

Editor – Olga Shamina