“We had already started making plans about it, but when the news broke we decided to get married straight away.” Anastasia and Oleg are two young Russian citizens who agreed to tell their story to The Moscow Times. And it’s not just a love story.
Oleg is indeed one of the approximately 300,000 citizens of the Russian Federation who were mobilized to go and fight in Ukraine, after the Kremlin’s announcement on September 21. The moment he received his summons, the man decided to marry Anastasia.
A widespread phenomenon among these new mobilized, which according to the Moscow-based media, have exploded the number of marriages celebrated in Russia lately.
Because if there are no national statistics on this subject, the English-language information site relays some significant figures at the local level which reflect the situation well:
“In the Sverdlovsk region, a 65% increase in the number of marriages in the first two weeks of mobilization was reported, and in the Khabarovsk region, there were 60% more marriages in the last week of September compared to compared to the whole previous month. Finally, in the central Omsk region, entire groups of bride and groom were bused to weddings, directly from their military bases.”
81,000 euros in the event of death
Obviously, this sudden craze for the exchange of rings is not due only to the romanticism of the soldiers. It also responds to material motivations that The Moscow Times summarized in these terms:
“Through marriage, the families of men sent to the front can access advantages [qui varient selon les régions] such as free public transport, allowances for children, medical assistance, and a bonus of 300,000 rubles [4 900 euros].”
Most importantly, in the event of the death of the spouse, compensation of more than 5 million rubles [81 000 euros] is provided by the state to the wife of the deceased. “In the Central Russian region where Anastasia and Oleg live, this figure is 100 times the average monthly salary,” notes the Moscow media.
Partial mobilization officially over
This explains the need felt by some Russian couples to formalize their union before the spouse leaves for war. Moreover, this requirement was clearly understood by the Kremlin, which decided “to add mobilization to the list of exceptional circumstances allowing a couple to marry immediately, without having to notify it a month in advance as provided for by law”, concludes The Moscow Times.
An exceptional circumstance which should no longer be used in the coming weeks, since according to the Russian authorities, the partial mobilization officially ended on Friday, October 28.