2023-07-18 20:01:43
«Joining the army against Ukraine is the right decision!» Vitalï, in his fifties, has no doubts. “If the army calls me, I will go. It is a patriotic duty! », confides this father and teacher in Krasnodar, a large city in southern Russia, less than 400 kilometers from the front.
Around him, the Russian flag flies at the entrance to restaurants. On the sides of the trolleybuses, on the facade of the concert halls, are the “Z”, the letter symbol of the support of the population for the “special operation” of the Kremlin in Ukraine. “We need to obtain three certaintiesenumerates Vitali. No Ukraine in NATO, end of the cult of fascist heroes and stop anti-Russian cannibalism. So many good reasons to fight our war to the end! »
But there is another “good reason” to go to the front. Igor, Vitalï’s brother, a pharmacy employee, also in his fifties, has already volunteered in the army for three months last winter. By belief. But above all out of economic realism. “He came back alive, with the usual post-conflict psychological damage. But, after a period of doubt, he decided to go back to fight», says Vitali. As a volunteer in the Russian army, Igor earns five times more than his usual salary: 200,000 rubles, or 2,000 euros a month, like all those joining the front.
Compensation in the event of injury or death
These two brothers are not the only ones to be tempted by the call to arms and pay. “For many, the motivations are above all financial.», explains Vladislav Inozemtsev, an economist at the Center for Post-Industrial Studies in Moscow, who has delved into the numbers. In peacetime, a soldier’s salary rarely exceeded 40,000 rubles a month (€400), an income below the average salary (just over €600 – much less in poor regions). Today, in addition to the monthly 200,000 rubles, compensation for injury or death must be taken into account.
«The children and the widow can receive compensation of 5 million rubles paid by the State (€50,000), supplemented by sums from the regional authorities, up to 3 million rubles (€30,000)”, calculated Vladislav Inozemtsev. If we take a 40-year-old man in a poor region of Russia, the death benefits received by his family represent the average salary he would have earned in almost twenty-six years at his usual job. For many, the calculation is therefore quickly made.
In Krasnodar, warrior slogans spread out in murals to boost recruitment: “We do not abandon our own. » Populated by nearly a million inhabitants, this city in southern Russia has seen its population double in twenty years, attracting families from Siberia seduced by the sun and comfort. Husbands, ex-oil workers, are now tempted by army salaries. The countryside of this region, the agricultural breadbasket of the country, is also a good breeding ground: the work is seasonal and, in winter, the men of the fields can take up arms. Not to mention the Cossacks, of which Krasnodar is one of the capitals.
“Maintaining a sense of normality”
Will these volunteers be enough? The Kremlin and the televisions in its service ensure that the Russian army will hold firm and will not lack men. The losses, of course, are higher than what was expected in February 2022, when the “special military operation” was launched, but everyone assures that in the end, the victory will be Russian. Several military experts doubt that these recruitments will attract enough men under the flags. But for Moscow, the priority is first to avoid involving Russian society too much in the war.
Counter-offensive in Ukraine: a month later, kyiv is still looking for a breach
“The attraction to the front thanks to these high salaries allows the Kremlin to avoid risking launching a second wave of mobilizationanalyzes Andrei Kolesnikov, political scientist at the Carnegie Foundation. After the general anxiety caused in the population by the first wave last fall, the authorities are very reluctant. Their priority is to maintain a sense of normalcy. »
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