Even before the law allowing reservists to guard facilities against Ukrainian drones takes effect, authorities in at least nine Russian regions have already begun openly recruiting them for that role, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe. The calls were published in official district communities and relayed by regional officials.
The earliest notice found by the outlet was dated October 15, when officials in Bashkortostan’s Gafuriysky district announced recruitment of reservists for training camps. Later, the republic’s authorities explicitly spoke about protecting the fuel and energy sector and repelling drone attacks, promising a one-time payment of 100,000 rubles, a monthly salary of 45,000 to 50,000 rubles, and separate bonuses for each drone shot down. On October 30, officials in the Abzelilovsky district said the first 11 reservists had already been sent to training.
On October 16, Nizhny Novgorod region announced the formation of the first 15-member “BARS-NN” group to guard important facilities. Reports of recruitment later appeared in Omsk region, Udmurtia, Kursk region, Krasnodar region, and the Tambov, Yaroslavl, and Samara regions. In several cases, authorities stressed that the tasks would be carried out only within the home region and would not involve combat operations outside the country.
On October 28, the State Duma passed in a single day a bill allowing reservists to be sent to protect critical facilities in peacetime. At the time of publication, the bill had not yet taken effect: it still required approval by the Federation Council and Vladimir Putin’s signature. Despite that, regional authorities were already urging citizens to sign reserve contracts.
“Reservists were essentially created from the start as a resource for tasks like these,” said Ivan Chuvilyaev of the movement Get Lost, noting that formations such as BARS have in practice existed for a long time.
Timofey Vaskin, head of the legal department at the Conscript School, said existing legislation already allows active reservists to be called to training and assigned military duties. In his view, regions may be using the attention around the bill to recruit people now so they can be deployed immediately to guard critical infrastructure once the amendments come into force.