To force deserters back to war, Russia’s military is torturing their families

The Russian army has swelled since Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Months into the war, Russia conducted a “partial mobilization” for several chaotic weeks, drafting as many as 300,000 additional personnel. In late October 2022, the Defense Ministry announced that “conscription of citizens in the reserve” had stopped, and it was back to business as usual. Exactly three years later, the federal government passed legislation allowing the state to call up reservists to protect “critical infrastructure” during special drills — just the latest reminder that Russia’s armed forces remain badly in need of more men.

A new investigation by People of Baikal reveals another tactic the Russian military has employed to stem personnel losses: torturing the friends and family of deserters. Journalists reporting from the Transbaikal region spoke to Olga Vtorushina, the mother of a 24-year-old man named Pavel. On November 2, 2025, masked men kidnapped her son, drove him outside of town, and tortured him with a stun gun, demanding that he help them locate his cousin Pyotr, who’d recently failed to return to his unit. 

The men who abducted and tortured Pavel wore camouflage uniforms and masks, but Olga said she’d seen them around town and had recognized one as a member of the local military police. She told journalists that the men beat her son and shocked him repeatedly with a stun gun until he passed out several times. Pavel wasn’t released until he telephoned Pyotr and lured him to a meeting where he was later apprehended. Pyotr had been captured before while serving in Ukraine. Olga says he was traded back to Russia in a POW exchange and was shocked to learn that he was expected to return to combat. 

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People of Baikal also interviewed the mother of a 25-year-old contract soldier who deserted his unit when the military ordered him back to duty after he sustained a head injury. He escaped to his hometown and spent several months in hiding. To find the missing soldier, masked men tracked down his father and tortured him with a stun gun. They also beat his friend. The soldier’s mother told journalists that the assailants were not military police but a search group from her son’s military base. Her son is now in the army’s custody.

On August 19, 2025, military police officers tracked down 36-year-old Viktor at his friend’s home. They tased him, broke his nose, stuffed him in the trunk of a car, and drove him 300 miles away. Viktor had failed to return to his unit on time, staying at home to assist his wife, who was expecting their third child any day. She gave birth a week later. Viktor’s mother told People of Baikal that the men who took her son are the same ones who tortured Pavel on November 2.

Similar raids have been reported in towns throughout the Transbaikal region. In Ushmun, for example, masked men were spotted patrolling the streets. According to a local newspaper, these were military police officers. Authorities in Trubachevo and Novoshirokinsky confirmed to People of Baikal by phone that locals had been subjected to “measures of force.”