‘Where did they disappear to?’: Russian MP says 1.5 mln military uniforms are missing

Russia’s MP for Zabaykalsky region lieutenant general Andrey Gurulev has said that 1.5 million sets of military uniform had gone missing, reports local outlet Tayga.info. 

“I still don’t understand where 1.5 million sets [of uniform], which had been kept at personnel reception points, ended up. Today, we have either problems with uniforms, or something else happens. All of these things were there, where did they disappear to? No one can explain this to me in any way at all anywhere!” he said. 

According to Gurulev, personnel reception points need to be “equipped now for the future”, so they can “easily” accept people. 

“We need to ask specific questions: where [did it go], where [is it now], and how did this happen that our drafted men are unable to receive a uniform, etc,” the lieutenant general concluded.

On 21 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on “partial mobilisation” in Russia. In the text of the decree, the mobilisation is called “partial”, however, no specifications (territorial, categorical) are established. “According to this text, anyone could be drafted, except for employees of defence enterprises that get an exemption for the period of their work,” political scientist Ekaterina Shulman noted at the time.

Soon after, countless reports of violations of the “partial mobilisation” process started coming in. For example, head of the Agora human rights group Pavel Chikov reported that HIV-infected Russian citizens had received draft notices despite a governmental website previously saying that they were not subject to mobilisation.