Several cases of people over the age of combat, sick or exempted for other reasons, provoked indignant reactions on social networks.
The Russian authorities have promised to repair the “errors» committed in the context of the mobilization decreed by President Vladimir Putinafter the summons of people supposed to be exempted which caused an outcry.
By announcing this mobilization on Wednesday “partial“reservists to go to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had stressed that only people with military experience or skills”relevantwould be called.
Read alsoPartial mobilization: Russia’s admission of weakness
But several cases of people over combat age, ill or otherwise exempt, have sparked outrage on social media, sparking embarrassment and concern from authorities.
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“Improper cases of mobilization”
In the Volgograd region (South-West), it is a 63-year-old retired soldier, suffering from severe diabetes and brain problems, who was dismissed from the training center where he had been summoned, according to authorities.
In the same region, the director of a small rural school, Alexandre Faltine, aged 58, received a mobilization order when he had not served in the army. After the publication of a video of his daughter on social networks, where it was widely shared, he was able to return home.
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In an unusual admission of dysfunction, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, Valentina Matvienko, curtly chastised regional authorities, who oversee the mobilization. “Improper cases of mobilization (…) arouse heated discussions in society and on social networks“, she lamented in a press release published on Telegram.
“Some judgeit seems, that it is more important to submit their report quickly than to properly fulfill an important mission for the State. Such excesses are absolutely unacceptable.“, she added. “Ensure that the partial mobilization is fulfilled in full respect of the announced criteria. And without making a single mistake!she ordered.
‘Understanding trust’
These drifts are a new example of the organizational difficulties that have accompanied from the beginning Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense announced the replacement of the highest ranking officer in charge of logistics issues by General Mikhail Mizintsev, a heavyweight of the staff.
Even if the authorities present the mobilization of people supposed to be exempted as isolated cases, their declarations express a form of concern in the face of the indignant reaction of part of the population.
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On Saturday, the chairman of the Kremlin Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, urged Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to “urgently solve problems” observed since the beginning of the mobilization in order not to “undermine public confidence“.
He cited the examples of 70 fathers of large families mobilized in the Russian republic of Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, as well as nurses and midwives without any military experience in the Sverdlovsk region (Urals), summoned “under threat of legal action” in case of refusal. Valery Fadeyev also criticized those who “postpone the mobilization orders at two in the morning, as if they took us all for (deserters)“. This method createsdissatisfaction“, he warned.
“Take personally in hand the requests of the inhabitants”
Faced with this situation, the governors of the regions of Vladimir, near Moscow, and Leningrad (North-West) promised that the people mobilized “by mistakewould go home. The Governor of Leningrad, Alexander Drozdenko, on Sunday asked the heads of the districts of his region to “personally take in hand the requests of the inhabitants and take care of each file“.
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Several students also claimed to have been summoned when the authorities had promised that they would be exempted. On Saturday evening, Vladimir Putin signed a decree providing an exemption for those studying at state universities or vocational schools.
Another controversial situation concerns the case of demonstrators against the offensive in Ukraine who received a mobilization order while in police custody. There, the Kremlin indicated that it saw nothingillegal“.
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