On Monday, the governor of the Khabarovsk region in Eastern Russia announced that a regional military commissar had been fired due to recent recruitment issues. Governor Mikhail Degtyarev confirmed the news via a post on Telegram, explaining that commissar Yuri Laiko had been let go after thousands of ineligible residents had been sent draft notices, forcing the region to send home roughly half of its drafted men.
“In 10 days, several thousand of our countrymen received summons and arrived at the military registration and enlistment offices,” Degtyarev said. “About half of them we returned home as they did not meet the selection criteria for entering the military service.”
Despite this setback, Degtyarev assured that Laiko’s departure would not affect the continuing mobilization efforts in the region. While the regional governor did not specify the exact reasons why this recent crop of draftees did not meet standards, the move comes at a time of widespread reported chaos in Russia’s attempt to enact its first partial mobilization since World War II amid its flagging efforts in Ukraine.
According to a Friday report from Deutsche Welle (DW), the mass mobilization effort in Russia has led to draft letters being sent to men who are elderly, disabled, or otherwise lacking in any sort of military or combat experience. One Moscow woman, the wife of a 43-year-old reservist who was sent home due to his lack of experience, told DW that these issues are happening because draft notices are being sent “at random.”
“This happens because conscription offices are causing chaos by sending out draft notices at random, I had this confirmed speaking to various hotlines,” the woman, Oksana, said.
The Moscow Times on Friday reported that regional leaders in Southern Russia would be making efforts to tighten and improve their recruitment processes after their “mistakes” in the last week brought them a reprimand from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sergei Melikov, the regional leader of the southern Republic of Dagestan, sharply criticized his military recruitment officials in a video shared on Telegram, after reports emerged of recruiters driving around cities and using loudspeakers to tell residents to report for enlistment.
“What kinds of idiots are these?” Melikov asked, according to the newspaper. “Are you morons?”
The newspaper also reported that masses of men are being sent home in the Belgorod and Rostov regions due to them not meeting military standards. On Thursday, Putin himself issued an apology for the various issues plaguing the mobilization process since he announced it the week prior, pledging that individuals with deferrals and exemptions will be sent home.
Newsweek reached out to Russian officials for comment. It also reached out to the Foreign Policy Research Institute for expert comment.
