Vladimir Putin has ordered the conscription of another 133,000 soldiers to aid his war in Ukraine.
The 18-to-30 year olds will be called up between tomorrow and December 31, but parents have raised fear that the untrained conscripts will be thrust straight into ‘hot’ border regions close to the war zone.
The figure is higher than the same draft last year when Putin recruited 130,000, and in spring when he drafted another 150,000.
The Russian regime is facing an increasing backlash over use of conscripts close to the war zone in defiance of an earlier Putin promise to parents that he would not put recruits in harm’s way.
Honestly, that window of opportunity for Russians has closed, possibly for a very long time. By now, much of the gov is designed to quickly and brutally control opposition and protests.
For contrast: Just on the other side of the border a decade ago, tens of thousands of courageous Ukrainians seized a very similar opportunity. They fought and died for it, did not give up, and won the battle. Fuck Putin and his Yanukovych puppets, hello Zelenskyy and EU. But Ukrainians are still fighting to finish the war. They should be incredibly proud of their achievements so far.
Unfortunately a large portion of the population supports the war and putin. Just look at the level of support just from russians living abroad. It’s most of their population that is all on board.
Russia was never not a propaganda and fear controlled dictatorship, they only changed the paint job from time to time. It’s almost impressive or at least very difficult for one to free themselves from that and open their mind when they, their parents and their parents and so on grew up like that.
I’m not saying it’s not their fault I just think there’s nuance to that.
I’d give them a pass pre-internet, but today? In the age were everything is connected, and russia wasn’t like NK which controls everything their citizens see, they have access to the Internet. Which at bare minimum gives them some views outside of the propaganda, they shouldn’t be this supportive of this war.
I don’t think you have an idea of how much of an information bubble Russia is in? In case you haven’t noticed the “western” internet speaks almost universally English. Unless you’re in some niche national community you’re unlikely to see any other language. We’re speaking English right now and that’s not my first language. Last time I checked something like 1 in 20 Russians understand English and even less can actually speak it. The vast majority of the Russian population, despite having near full access to the internet, are locked in the Russian sphere of information. And their primary search tool, Yandex, is majority owned by the oligarchs.
When you live in Russia you really have to go out of your way to escape the Russian propaganda. The vast majority of people in any country would never go to such lengths to get an broader view of a subject. Most probably wouldn’t even understand they need a broader view than what their regular media feeds them.
it’s russian internet they mostly use though.
There’s probably not mucb overlap between those conscripted and those who read and write Western languages.
… or maybe, do they have access to the internet? Sure, educated people do, Muscovites do, but what about people who have been conscripted from?