Vladimir Putin has cleared the way to mobilise one million civilian reservists to fight Western-backed Ukraine, not 300,000 as officially announced, it has been claimed today.
A secret seventh article in his "partial mobilisation" presidential decree allows him to call up a total of one million people, a source told independent investigative media outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe.
The Russian President is said to be scared to reveal the truth to his citizens as he fears more dissidents will leave the country.
However, the Kremlin denied the claims, with state-owned news agency RIA citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov who called the report "a lie".
It comes after Putin and his defence minister Sergei Shoigu yesterday announced 300,000 Russians would be called up to fight in Ukraine.
Enlistment is underway today on a grand scale across Russia's 11 time zones, as seen in multiple videos.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday refused to disclose the content of the classified seventh article of the decree but admitted it related to the number of Russians to be mobilised, according to Kommersant newspaper.
The article was "for official use", he said.
Peskov added: "The only thing I can tell you...Sergei Shoigu said in his interview - 300,000 people [will be mobilised].
"We are talking about up to 300,000 people. And also, as the Minister of Defence explained, not all at once."
However, Novaya Gazeta said secret Article 7 hides the real figure which officials did not mention.
The defence ministry wanted his entire decree secret but in the end, only the seventh article was classified, it was claimed.
"The figure was corrected several times, and in the end, they settled on one million," said the Novaya Gazeta source.
The newspaper's claim is echoed by Telegram channel General SVR which said the 300,000 figure is "false".
"It is planned to mobilise 500,000 people by the end of the year and another 500,000 people by March next year," it stated.
The anti-Putin channel, which claims insider Kremlin sources, also claimed the "general estimate of losses by March next year is about 300,000 killed and wounded".
This is in addition to some 81,572 killed so far, according to the channel, which predicted in advance the mobilisation move by Putin.
The Russian president will also impose "the most stringent measures to ensure mobilisation" with "a ban on movement even across the country" using police and national guards.
Dissidents will find their bank accounts blocked, preventing them from obtaining money - including those who have fled abroad.
"It is dangerous for men of military age to keep money in any bank in Russia," said the channel.
All Russian men are required to do a year's military service between the ages of 18 and 27, although university students may instead receive instruction from a military faculty alongside their chosen studies.
Some Russians headed abroad today to escape their country's biggest conscription drive since World War Two, while explosions shook southeastern Ukraine on the eve of referendums planned there by pro-Moscow separatists.
"Every normal person is (concerned)," said one man, identifying himself only as Sergey, disembarking in Belgrade after a flight from Moscow. "It is OK to be afraid of the war."
Anti-war protests in 38 Russian cities saw more than 1,300 people arrested on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, with more planned for the weekend.
Some of the detainees had been ordered to report to enlistment offices on Thursday, the first full day of conscription, independent news outlets said.
Prices for air tickets out of Moscow soared above $5,000 for one-way flights to the nearest foreign locations, with most sold out in the coming days. Traffic also surged at border crossings with Finland and Georgia.
One Russian man arriving at Istanbul Airport said he left partly over the Kremlin's decision. "It can lead to lots of problems for lots of Russians," said Alex while grabbing his suitcase at a baggage carousel.
A haunting video shows a group of enlistees from Stary Oskol in the Belgorod region being taken away into their military service.
His child, probably a girl, is heard - but not seen - shouting after him: "Papa, goodbye…. Please come back.
"Papa, bye, Papa...Papa...?"
The child cries inconsolably as her father - somewhere in a group of men - slowly leaves, some never to return.
One claim was that these men - who are close to the Ukraine border in the Belgorod region - would be the first of the newly recruited to the front, but all are supposed to have at least one month's training first.
Separately, university students are seen in a video being marched by police from their lecture theatres to war service in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia - already one of the worst hit regions for bloodshed in Putin's war.
The scene at Buryatia State University came one day after the defence minister Sergei Shoigu had vowed higher education students would not be enlisted.
