partial mobilization
Hundreds arrested at anti-war protests in Russia
A Russian recruit looks through a bus window at his crying mother as he says goodbye in Volgograd. photo
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
Despite brutal police violence, people are again demonstrating in Russia against the partial mobilization ordered by Putin for the war in Ukraine. But there is also criticism from official bodies.
The Russian police have sometimes brutally cracked down on participants in anti-war protests. In Moscow alone, more than 100 people were arrested on Saturday at a demonstration against partial mobilization in Russia for the war in Ukraine. In St. Petersburg, videos were published on social networks showing men in combat uniform and helmets beating demonstrators.
The human rights portal ovd.info, citing eyewitnesses, reported that security forces used electric batons. In the late afternoon there was talk of 289 arrests in a total of 22 cities across the country.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin wants to draft in around 300,000 reservists to hold the areas still occupied in Ukraine after the Russian army was defeated. That had already triggered protests in about 40 cities last Wednesday.
Dozens of people demonstrated in the Russian capital on Saturday in cold and rainy weather, as a reporter from the German Press Agency reported on site. People in numerous cities protested peacefully against citizens being drawn into Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Increasing official criticism of partial mobilization
Meanwhile, official bodies are increasingly criticizing the military’s approach to partial mobilization. The head of the Russian President’s Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, called on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to end the “bludgeoning system” at many draft offices in the country. Even men who had no combat experience would get draft orders.
In the Yakutia region in Siberia, the head of the republic, Aissen Nikolayev, admits that mistakes have been made in the military district offices. Men were drafted who did not fall under the mobilization. “Reservists were drafted incorrectly, they have to be sent back. The work has already begun,” said Nikolayev.
In the social networks in Russia there are numerous cases in which fathers of large families, men without combat experience or older and chronically ill reserve officers report that they have been drafted. Nikolayev said that the decisions of the military commissariats need to be better checked.
Kadyrov: They don’t need reservists
Meanwhile, thousands continued to flee the country to avoid conscription. The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus, Ramzan Kadyrov, called those leaving the country “lazybones”, “useless” and “cowards” who should leave because they could only harm the army. At the same time he said that Russia actually has enough resources without reservists. There are five million well-prepared people in Russia who can handle weapons.
The astonishment and criticism in Russian society has been great for days because Putin is mobilizing reservists, but not the members of the various security structures. There are around a million soldiers alone, plus the National Guard and Interior Ministry troops, as well as some prison security forces. “If 50 percent of the staff is left on duty, then the other half in a number of 2.5 million people will defeat any western army. And the reserve is not necessary,” he said.
Putin fires deputy minister
Kremlin chief Putin, however, put an amended law into force on tougher penalties for deserters. Anyone who deserts during a mobilization or a state of war, for example, can be punished with up to 15 years in prison. Anyone who voluntarily becomes a prisoner of war – the Ukrainian government had called for it – can face up to ten years in prison.
At the same time, exactly seven months after the start of the war against Ukraine, the President dismissed Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov, who was responsible for equipping and supplying the army. Officially, the Ministry of Defense justified the step in a statement on Saturday with the transfer of Bulgakov “to another post”. His successor is to be Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, who previously headed the national center for defense management. In the future he will be responsible in particular for the logistics of the army.
Mizintsev is also known abroad: he was held responsible for the heavy attacks on the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which was captured by the Russians at the end of May. According to Ukrainian sources, thousands of civilians were killed and much of the city was destroyed during the week-long siege. Misintsev, also known as the “Butcher of Mariupol,” is therefore on a sanctions list in Great Britain.
After recent defeats, Russia’s military leadership around Defense Minister Shoigu has recently come under criticism, even in circles close to the Kremlin. Under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, the Russian army had to withdraw from the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv about two weeks ago. Then last Wednesday, Putin ordered a partial mobilization of his armed forces.