Russian Guard Deployed Over 'Increased Attacks' on Enlistment Offices

Russia's National Guard has been deployed nationwide over "increased attacks" on military registration and enlistment offices since President Vladimir Putin's decision to partially mobilize reserve troops to fight in Ukraine, an official has said.

Security has been ramped up at military registration and enlistment offices in a number of cities, including Moscow, State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein announced in a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"In connection with the increased attacks on military registration and enlistment offices, the Russian Guard has taken measures to protect them," Khinshtein wrote.

"In addition, the offices are included on the routes of patrol units of non-departmental guards all over the country," the official said.

After Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia on September 21, attacks and arson cases at military registration and enlistment offices and local administrations have increased.

Khinshtein noted that authorities have been arresting those targeting enlistment offices, "for example, when trying to throw a Molotov cocktail," he said.

There have been attacks in regions nationwide, including in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Ivanovo, Krasnoyarsk, and Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhnevartovsk, Ryazan, Sverdlovsk, and Voronezh.

Government offices have also been set on fire with Molotov cocktails in multiple regions of Russia, including in Tolyatti, a city on the Volga River in western Russia, in the city of Lomonosov, which is part of St. Petersburg, and in the city of Gai, in Russia's Orenburg region.

Defense officials have said up to 300,000 reservists would be called up to fight in Ukraine as part of Putin's partial mobilization decree, but there have been various reports of people being mobilized by the authorities despite not meeting the criteria set out by the department.

In Russia's Irkutsk region last month, a young Russian man opened fire at a military registration and enlistment office.

The governor of the region, Igor Kobzev, said on his Telegram channel at the time that there had been "an emergency" in the area.

"A young man fired at the military registration and enlistment office," he said, noting that the military commissar, Alexander Vladimirovich Eliseev, was in intensive care and in serious condition.

According to multiple reports, before the shooting the man said: "No one will fight" and "now we'll all go home."

Kobzev said the man was "immediately" arrested. Local Telegram channel ASTRA said it had contacted the alleged shooter's mother, Marina Zinina, who reportedly said that her son didn't receive a summons himself, but that his best friend had been called up to fight in Ukraine.

"Ruslan was very upset because of this, because [his] friend did not serve in the army. They said that there would be partial mobilization, but it turns out that they take everyone," she reportedly said.

And on Monday, the person responsible for mobilization in St. Petersburg was fired, according to an official.

Governor Alexander Beglov dismissed Viktor Shevchenko, head of the administration's mobilization department, the press service of the regional government said, without elaborating.

Newsweek has reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment.