Raids in the Penza region. What's happening?

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Raids continue in the Penza region, during which men are detained on the streets, in public transport and during car checks. The human rights project “Walk through the Forest” reports mass appeals from reservists, relatives of conscripts and those liable for military service.

Formally, such raids are explained by the search for those who evade military registration, naturalized migrants who have not registered, as well as military personnel who left their unit without permission. However, according to local residents, in practice, security forces detain “everyone in a row”, hand over summonses and, under threats, persuade men to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense.

Raids are recorded in Penza, Kuznetsk, Serdobsk and Kamenka. Local residents report that minibuses with the sign “Storm” are driving around the region. After the raids began in the region, a Telegram channel “News of what’s happening || Serdobsk / Penza” , where they publish warnings about places where security forces stop and detain men.

What happened?

Reports of mass raids in the Penza region began to spread on June 18. Several media and human rights projects reported what was happening at once - “Go through the forest” , “Important stories” , “Mediazona” , “NeMoskva speaks” , Varlamov News , DSO and ASTRA . According to local residents, men are detained in Penza, Kamenka and Kuznetsk, taken to police departments and military registration and enlistment offices, and then persuaded to sign contracts to be sent to war against Ukraine.

One of the most discussed episodes was a video published on June 17 by Penza resident Natalya Solomina. In the footage filmed near the military registration and enlistment office of the Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts on Skladskaya Street, women are trying to stop a minibus with detained men. They ask whether they signed the contract voluntarily, demand to call an ambulance for a person who has become ill, block the car’s road, and two women lie on the hood, trying to prevent its departure.

According to the Walk Through the Forest project, by June 19, at least 16 men had been detained in the region. In a number of cases, relatives managed to obtain the release of detainees from military registration and enlistment offices or police departments. Human rights activists also reported complaints that men were being held under the pretext of debt, criminal records or administrative violations and were pressured into signing a contract.

Thus, in one of the appeals, relatives spoke about a resident of Penza, who, while intoxicated, was taken to the police station in a civilian car without identification marks. There he was asked to sign documents supposedly for release. Later, according to the family, it turned out that among the papers there was a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Relatives claim that the man’s passport was left at home, and he himself is already about a thousand kilometers from Penza.

Against the backdrop of growing public outcry, the military commissar of the Penza region Andrei Surkov confirmed the fact of the raids. According to him, the events are being held jointly with the police and are aimed at finding citizens who evade conscription or military registration, as well as military personnel who left their unit without permission. He denied accusations of coercion into contract service.

“Why are these raids being carried out? The first is to search for citizens evading conscription, searching for citizens evading military registration. These raids are carried out on an ongoing basis. There are no innovations here,” Surkov told local media.

In addition, the military commissar called the videos distributed on the Internet a “staged comedy” and stated that contracts in the region are supposedly signed exclusively voluntarily.

After this, the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Penza region issued a separate warning for those who publish information about the raids. The department called reports of mass detentions of men to be sent to war “false information” and threatened the authors of such publications with liability.

“The development of this situation leads to rampant crime and impunity,” the police said, emphasizing that the department’s employees are “working as usual.”

DOXA spoke with a local resident

In a conversation with DOXA, a local resident of the Penza region, who wished to remain anonymous, says that after the raids began, anxiety in the region has noticeably increased, and many men are trying to appear in public places less often.

According to him, residents are actively discussing what is happening and trying to wait out the period of raids. “People understand everything and try not to get caught,” says the interlocutor. One of his comrades, according to his words, temporarily went to his dacha after military acquaintances advised him not to appear in the city. “They told him directly that if they caught him, they would hardly be able to help,” he says: a.

DOXA's interlocutor notes that anxious moods are also noticeable in everyday life. He gives the example of a local milk seller who usually works in Penza in the mornings, but in recent days has been trying to leave the city as quickly as possible. “My friend asked why he was leaving so early, and he replied: “You see what’s happening.” I quickly sold out the milk and went back out of town,” he says: a.

At the same time, the resident emphasizes that she tries to separate confirmed information from rumors. According to e:e, many unconfirmed stories are spreading around what is happening, but the reports themselves about the arrests of men in the region did not appear yesterday.

He recalls that back at the end of 2025 he saw the story of a man who claimed that after checking his documents he was taken to the recruiting station under a fictitious pretext. According to the author of the publication, he managed to leave the building and escape before any paperwork was completed. “Then one military volunteer told me that such cases really happen,” says the interlocutor.

According to e:e, the main effect of the latest raids is an atmosphere of constant anxiety and caution. “It’s good that people are vigilant. Now many people prefer to play it safe once again,” he says: a.

What human rights activists say

Representative of the human rights project “Go through the Forest,” Ivan Chuvilyaev, in a conversation with Meduza, said that in the Penza region, security forces actually combined two well-known wartime practices - street raids and coercion to sign a contract through pressure, threats and manipulation.

According to him, it is not only conscripts who become targets of such raids. Those at risk are men who can be made more vulnerable due to debt, criminal records, administrative violations or other problems. Among the requests received by the project were stories of people with alimony arrears, outstanding criminal records, as well as a man detained while intoxicated.

“A person is stopped on the street, taken to a police station and held there until he signs a contract. Or until someone close to you comes and says: “This is my husband, here are his documents, let him go immediately,” Chuvilyaev said.

At the same time, according to him, in a number of cases, detainees managed to maintain access to the phone and contact relatives or lawyers. Several men, according to the human rights activist, were released after the intervention of relatives and lawyers. However, some of the detainees, according to “Go Through the Woods,” nevertheless signed contracts, and some have already been sent to military units.

Context

The raids in the Penza region are taking place against the background of the expansion of the digital military registration system and the gradual strengthening of control mechanisms over citizens liable for military service.

A unified register of military records and an electronic register of summonses began to be created after the adoption of amendments to the law “On Military Duty and Military Service”, signed by Vladimir Putin in April 2023. The operating procedure of the system and the application of restrictive measures was established by government decree No. 506 of April 19, 2024.

Although individual elements of the system were tested earlier, the full launch of the registry at the federal level took place in the fall of 2025. It allows military registration and enlistment offices to automatically send electronic summonses, update data on those liable for military service, remotely register citizens and remove them from military registration, and also apply restrictions provided by law.

In March 2026, the Conscious Objector Movement reported the first known case of the application of several restrictive measures at once through the electronic military register. We were talking about a resident of Kaliningrad who did not appear at the military registration and enlistment office after receiving a summons “to clarify data.”

At the same time, pressure on potential contract workers is also increasing. Thus, at the beginning of 2026, according to Faridaily, the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov informed the rectors of the largest Russian universities that at least 2% of students must enter into a contract with the Ministry of Defense.

At the same time, preparation of the mobilization infrastructure continues. On June 17, mobilization training exercises were held in the Volgograd region with the participation of specialized officials from the Astrakhan, Rostov and other regions, Kalmykia, as well as from the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine - Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk and Sevastopol. The exercises were conducted under the auspices of the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of Russia.

The “partial mobilization” formally announced by Vladimir Putin in September 2022 was never completed by a separate decree. Already at the end of October, the authorities announced the implementation of the plan to recruit 300 thousand people, but an official document on the cessation of mobilization activities never appeared. Human rights activists have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the absence of such a decree retains the ability of the Ministry of Defense to resume mass conscription at any time.