Authorities in Russian regions are demanding that businesses provide people to be sent to the war against Ukraine, according to the TV channel TV Rain. The outlet said it obtained a document titled “Plan for Selecting Candidates for Contract Service in 2026” prepared for Buryatia’s Muysky district.
The document was reportedly provided by a source close to the republican administration. According to that source, the situation in Muysky district is not unique and a similar mechanism, in his view, is operating in other Russian regions as well.
The plan specifies how many people work at each company, how many of them are men aged 20 to 60, and how many employees should be sent into contract service. The source told the broadcaster that district officials receive the required figures from a republican headquarters and then distribute quotas among local enterprises.
Companies unwilling to send their staff are, according to the source, offered another option: signing a contract with an unspecified firm for “selecting candidates for the special military operation”. The price of that service is said to be 100,000 rubles per person. TV Rain notes that this is a substantial amount for local businesses.
According to the broadcaster, similar demands are also being imposed on public-sector institutions. In particular, the district hospital is required under the plan to provide two employees, despite a shortage of medical workers in Buryatia.
A business owner from Siberia described a similar practice to TV Rain. He said companies were first pressured in 2024 to hand over workers for the war, under threat of “accidental inspections”. In 2025, he said, a “buyout” scheme appeared, with entrepreneurs pressured into signing contracts supposedly for recruiting candidates at 450,000 rubles per person.
“Everyone has friends or relatives who were killed or wounded, and there are many disabled people,” the channel quoted residents of the republic as saying.
TV Rain says Buryatia is among the Russian regions with a high number of people involved in the war and, accordingly, a high number of losses. According to the outlet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find volunteers willing to go to the front, because the war has affected nearly every family in the region.