Andrei Surkov, the military commissar of the Penza region, told Mediazona that a video showing women trying to prevent men from being taken away from a draft office was staged. The footage was filmed outside the draft office for Penza’s Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts on Skladskaya Street and published on VKontakte on June 17.
In the video, women gather around a minibus carrying several men. One of them shouts that they are not even being given five minutes to say goodbye. The person filming also asks a serviceman why an ambulance was not called for someone who felt unwell. She then asks the men inside whether they signed their contracts voluntarily, while another woman shouts for them to say whether they were forced.
Midway through the clip, the minibus tries to leave, but the women surround the vehicle and grab onto the hood.
“I am telling you that there are no roundups and no coercive actions,” Surkov said in the conversation with the reporter.
At first, the commissar refused to comment in detail by phone and suggested that the journalist come to the office in person. He also said that officials know the names of the people who, in his words, made the “staged video,” but he refused to identify them. Surkov then ended the call, adding that he did not know who he was speaking to and suggesting that the reporter could be working for Ukrainian intelligence.
Earlier, the Telegram channel Govorit NeMoskva, citing subscribers, reported large-scale roundups of men in Penza for deployment to the front. According to those accounts, draft office staff were allegedly assisted by masked men in balaclavas, and checks were carried out in different parts of the city. One source said men were checked for military registration records and that officials were looking for those who had failed to appear after receiving summonses.
The project Idite Lesom also quoted one of its subscribers as saying police conducted door-to-door checks in the Sputnik neighborhood and detained men on streets, in public transport, and in cars before taking them away to sign contracts.