Kremlin Arranges 'Bartholomew's Night' In Buryatia

Summonses are brought to students, the disabled and relatives of the long-dead.

Since September 21, thousands of Buryats have been trying to escape mobilization by leaving to Mongolia, said Aleksandra Garmazhapova, founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation.

Now representatives of her foundation receive a large number of questions on how to avoid mobilization, how to get to Mongolia, how to find a job or become a student in a foreign country, and so on. People also report long queues at the border.

"They are taking everyone away! What's been happening in Buryatia over the past 24 hours will soon be happening all over Russia! It's Bartholomew's Night in Buryatia, no less! Speak up about it! Don't hand out summonses, go to Mongolia, all of you who can. If you do not have a foreign passport, hide! People are being taken by buses straight away," says Garmazhapova.

According to Free Buryatia, as of September 21, not only men with combat experience, but also long dead men have received summonses as part of the "partial" mobilization.

For example, a woman from the republic reported that the military registration and enlistment office wanted to mobilize the brother of her acquaintance who had died several years ago. At night on September 22, in various districts of Buryatia, summonses were delivered by teachers.

"Summonses are delivered to students, disabled people and those who have never had anything to do with the army. We have already received several thousand in two days. Probably more than three thousand already, we have stopped counting because it is impossible. People are writing literally every minute," said the founder of the Foundation.

Local independent media and Buryatia's telegram channels report that some schools in the region have stopped functioning and have essentially been converted into military registration and enlistment offices.

Mass round-ups are being conducted in the region's villages, men have been taken away by the dozens, and in some places by the hundreds. In the morning the Buryat State University's classes were visited by the Federal Guard Service and the military police, and students were taken away straight from the classes.

According to Kholod, in Vladivostok, students at a local university who have academic debts were asked to deliver summonses.