In 2024, courts received a record 20,040 lawsuits to declare people missing or deceased, more than double the figures for 2023, when 8,591 lawsuits were filed, calculated "Mediazona"*. The surge in lawsuits occurred in the second half of last year.
In 2022, the number of such applications was no different from the pre-war level — about 8,000 per year across Russia.
According to the publication, in 2024, there were about 12,000 "extra" lawsuits (compared to peacetime), but the count is complicated by the fact that courts avoid publicity, hiding applicants and decisions.
Approximately 5,000 lawsuits filed in courts last year clearly indicate that the applicants are connected with the army: either a unit commander files the lawsuit, or military prosecutors, military enlistment offices, or directly the Ministry of Defense are involved in the case. Most lawsuits are filed by unit commanders, thus they "clean" the personnel lists of those who died in battle, but whose death was not officially confirmed, to recruit new fighters.
Since the beginning of the war, more than two hundred such lawsuits have been filed in the Klintsy City Court alone — the "home" court for the 488th Motorized Rifle Regiment. Since the summer of 2024, applications have been submitted by the dozens each week.
As a rule, relatives are notified of such lawsuits by mail, and consent from relatives is not required to declare a person missing. At the time of the court, they may not know what actually happened to the serviceman; moreover, they are not always satisfied with such lawsuits, as they are left without money and without information about what happened to their loved ones.
"Mediazona" spoke with the wife of 48-year-old firefighter from Obninsk, Alexander Yazikov, who went to war as a volunteer in May 2023. Five months later, he stopped calling home. There is no official information about what happened to Alexander, yet in June last year, the unit in Klintsy filed a lawsuit to declare Yazikov "missing." The "applicant" was an unnamed "commander of unit 12721," and the soldier's wife was designated as an "interested party." Military enlistment offices of the Kaluga and Bryansk regions, the social fund, and the registry office in Obninsk, as well as the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Finance of Russia, are also involved in the case under the same status.
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent."