Russia to conscript 1.2 million people

Russian authorities plan to conscript 1.2 million people for their “partial mobilization,” Meduza has learned from a source close to one of the country’s federal ministries.

Additionally, a source close to Moscow’s leadership told Meduza that up to 16,000 people from the capital are slated to be drafted. This was confirmed by a source close to one of Russia’s federal ministries. Authorities in St. Petersburg plan to draft roughly 3,200 people, according to a source close to the Presidential Envoy to Russia’s Northwestern Federal District.

A source close to one of the country’s federal ministries noted that authorities “recommended keeping recruitments to a minimum” in regional capitals. Instead, the government is conscripting people “in rural areas, where there’s no media, no opposition, and more support [for the war],” said the source.

After Vladimir Putin’s mobilization announcement on Wednesday, Russia Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that a total of 300,000 reserve troops would be called up. The official number of people to be drafted is indicated in the classified seventh paragraph of Putin’s official decree.

On September 22, Novaya Gazeta Europe, citing a source from the Putin administration, reported that the classified paragraph allows for up to one million draftees. Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov denied the report.

Update: Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied that Russia plans to conscript 1.2 million people, calling it "another lie."