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Several conscripts from the Tyumen Region and Primorsky Krai complained of fake contracts in January 2026, saying they realised someone had signed their contracts for them, only after receiving unexpected transfers from the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Since then, the conscripts’ families have appealed to all the authorities, including the presidential administration, in the hope they can get the contracts cancelled before the soldiers were sent to war.
21-year-old Lavrenty Kuznetsov enlisted in the military from Vladivostok in November 2025, where he had been assigned to the Transbaikal Unit No. 12651.
“Lavrenty managed to graduate from a construction technical school, and in October, he received his summons,” said Anna, Kuznetsov’s relative, noting that Lavrenty was terrified to even be sent to military service: “We’d heard so many stories about how soldiers were being pressured to sign contracts, but he later reassured us, saying they’d been asked about the contract and left alone when they refused.”
In December 2025, Lavrenty’s commander called the soldier’s parents, according to Anna, noting that: “I asked his mother to dictate her son’s information – his Taxpayer Identification Number (INN) and SNILS (Individual Insurance Account Number).”
Anna said that at first Laverenty’s mother was wary, but the Lieutenant said Lavrenty needed to be transferred to another unit, supposedly because he’d requested the transfer himself, and the information was needed to open a new card and file.
Tatyana was initially unsure about the new unit, but the lieutenant assured her that the new card would only be credited with a conscript’s salary, meaning 2,600 rubles, so when Lavrenty saw over two million rubles in his account on December 30th, he was “so frightened he even started crying,” Anna said.
Lavrenty’s relatives insist that he really didn’t sign anything: “They specifically discussed this issue – that he would under no circumstances sign anything – after all, they’d heard that guys were given fictitious documents to sign, so in the end, he didn’t sign anything, and if there was a contract with his name on it, it was a fake signature!” stated Anna.
Relatives of another conscript named Anton from Primorye came from the same Transbaikal unit, and had a similar story, where the commander requested a tax identification number, claiming it was necessary for a transfer to another unit.
“He said they’d help with inventory control at the weapons and uniform warehouse, like taking photos and entering them into the computer, but his mother was surprised because he was listed as a military cook,” said Irina, a relative of a conscript from Vladivostok.
“When I reached my son by phone, he confirmed he hadn’t thought about any transfer, and he was surprised by the questions about his tax identification number, but then he reassured his mother that he hadn’t signed anything.”
However, a couple of days later, almost 2 million rubles were deposited into the new card where the kopecks from his conscript service allowance had been deposited the previous month, and he’d been in a panic ever since.
“We called the bank, and they told us it was a transfer from the Russian Ministry of Defence! His mother consulted a lawyer and they filed a petition with the bank to refuse the transfer, hoping that they will get it turned around,” adding that the didn’t need millions, but their boy’s life was at stake.
According to the family of another conscript called Umed Khamdamov (18) from the same Transbaikal unit joined the army as a conscript from Tyumen, and claimed that a lieutenant named Kirill persuaded him and other conscripts to sign contracts.
“He spent almost an hour trying to lure them,” Umed said, adding that they all refused, but after a while, Kirill approached Umed and brought documents that were supposedly a contract for a transfer to another unit,” said Rustem, a relative of Umed.
Rustem said that Kirill described how much better it would be for Umed to sign a contract, with supposedly no military action, noting that Umed still refused to sign.
“And when the millions arrived in the boys’ accounts, Umed’s father, Ilkhom, called this lieutenant, who lied to him that Umed had signed a transfer request, claiming at the end of the request that the transfer automatically meant a one-year contract with the Ministry of Defence.”
Ilkhom was horrified, because Umed had moved to Russia after finishing school, having completed all 11 grades in Tajikistan, and couldn’t read Russian that well, but in the end, Ilkhom went straight to Chita and demanded to see the document, which they showed him, and it had Umed’s name and information, “but no signature,” Rustem concluded.
Sergei from Vladivostok reported that at least 10 conscripts who hadn’t signed contracts received similar transfers in Transbaikal Unit No. 12651.
“There may be more of these guys, but certainly not fewer – the parents have banded together and have already filed complaints with the military prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee,” Sergei said.
“Two mothers have already gone to the presidential administration, where they were told the contracts were kept at the Chita military enlistment office, even the ‘signing’ date, but in Chita, neither they nor we were given any ‘contracts’ or even shown them,” said Alena, a relative of Sergei.
Alena added: “The lawyer says that if they didn’t give our guys copies with signatures, it means it’s already illegal – that means there are no real contracts, and they’re afraid to show documents with forged signatures – but that doesn’t reassure us much, we’ve heard stories of conscripts dying while trying to prove in court that they never signed anything.”
Relatives of soldiers and human rights activists have regularly reported cases in which commanders have forced conscripts to sign contracts under torture and beatings.
When command fails to force soldiers to sign contracts, commanders allegedly forge the soldiers’ signatures, which was covered by a report in 2024 in Russian publication “Okno”, where it was noted that three Sakhalin conscripts sued the Russian Ministry of Defence for nearly nine months over forged contracts.
After the soldiers’ death, experts officially confirmed that their signatures on the contracts had been forged, so relatives turned to the media to state that signatures had been forged for many conscripts, even though just three families had been to court to challenge the actions.
“After the Ukrainian Armed Forces invaded the Kursk region, there was a scandal raised by the relatives of conscripts who were captured,” said the press secretary of the “Go to the Forest” movement Ivan Chuvilyaev to Radio Liberty.
“How did they end up there, the relatives asked? In a combat zone, even though, according to all the paperwork, the child, let’s call it what it is, should have been in Karelia or the Murmansk region?
“Then, as I recall, the prosecutor’s office said, “Well, yes, they signed contracts without their knowledge – yes, the signatures were forged.” But there were no consequences, no high-profile trial, the prosecutor’s office just issued a single statement saying yes, that’s what happened,” the lawyer added.
Conscripts from the Chelyabinsk region were strangely transferred to contract service without their knowledge, having no idea they’d actually signed one, which appears to be a common practice because it just takes sleight of hand.
Younger people who don’t have much life experience, who don’t understand what a document should look like, such as in cases where they hand out papers on a bus with the lights off and say, “These are your uniform documents, confirming your acceptance – we’ve dressed you in a nice Ministry of Defence uniform, now sign that you’ve received it,” with such encouragement as “grown-ups wouldn’t lie to them,” so they just signed contracts, Chuvilyaev added.
Information about conscripts in the combat zone first surfaced in 2022, despite Vladimir Putin’s claims that neither conscripts or reservists would be deployed in Ukraine, leading to the “Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers” reporting that conscripts were being transferred en masse to contract service and sent to the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence was eventually forced to confirm this.
Subsequently, Russian independent media have repeatedly reported on conscripts being transferred to territories directly adjacent to the combat zone, as well as threats and deceptions used to coerce them into signing contracts with the Ministry of Defence.
Furthermore, reports have also surfaced from time to time in relation to forged signatures being placed on contracts, in which case, conscripts learn of their status when large sums of payments appear in their accounts due to being contract soldiers.
At least the relatives of the Tyumen conscripts got some justice thanks to the article – because according to Lyubov Ponomareva, the mother of one of the soldiers, an expert examination has shown that the signatures on the documents were likely not theirs, so the soldiers were due to be reinstated as conscripts within 10 days, and the materials were under investigation.
All names in the article have been changed to protect those who gave statements from further actions of the Russian Armed Forces and the recruitment centres.
