Families in anxiety: the conscripts could reach a million. Escapes abroad are increasing. And Germany opens its doors to deserters
“How are we? Do you know the Moscow Sun? ». The response of Dmitry Oreshkin, a political scientist of considerable popularity until he dared to criticize the Kremlin’s strategy on Ukraine in 2014, needs an explanation.
Just twelve days ago. The capital celebrated his feast, while a Kharkiv the Russian troops fled abandoning their positions, with a retreat so fast that they could not pass over in silence. Vladimir Putin chose instead to inaugurate the new local attraction with words full of pride, a large 140 meter high Ferris wheel that with its spokes was to illuminate the VDNKH, a theme park built in 1935 to illustrate the great successes achieved by the Soviet Union, today an area in the process of recovery. «A unique work, which has no equal in Europe and in the world». A few hours later, the Moscow Sun was frozen due to a failure. It was closed for four days, then reopened for two, and finally closed again for maintenance.
“The population was told that we were strong and that we had to be proud of ourselves,” explains the professor, owner of a very popular column on the website of Radio Echo until its closure. “Suddenly we discover instead that nothing works, and that the words of Vladimir Putin
the past six months were a bluff. Including those of his last speech about him, because partial mobilization is like a partial pregnancy: it does not exist. People will soon understand. And he will begin to not believe him anymore. The real danger facing the Kremlin is not protest, but collective distrust ».
The question
Still, nothing seems to have changed. Starting with the name. Yesterday Dmitry Peskovspokesman for the Kremlin and voice of the president, at the specific request of an English journalist of the Telegraph he replied that even now it is not possible to call it war, it still remains a Special Military Operation. And as usual, Ukraine is becoming “a totalitarian Nazi state” according to the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Go on like this, following a pre-established script, and in the meantime half Russia and the whole world are wondering what this mobilization will ever be.
Citing sources from the Kremlin administrationthe European edition of Novaya Gazeta
he revealed that at the beginning the entire text on the call to arms had to be classified, thus following the will of the Ministry of Defense. But then it was decided to apply the omission only to the seventh of the ten articles that make up the provision, the one that establishes the number of people to be sent to the front. It had to be three hundred thousand, it will reach one million civilians enlisted, according to the newspaper founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov. A version that Peskov dismissed as a “total lie”.
The clear part of the decree, however, supports the thesis of a very partial mobilization. The only exempt are the employees of the war sector, those not suitable for health reasons, people with dependent disabled family members, fathers with at least four dependent children under the age of sixteen. But yesterday some corrections arrived from the Ministry of Defense. Full-time university students will also stay at home, a footnote that greatly dries up a potential basin of protest, and the rumor that the new conscripts will lose their jobs has been denied. Instead, the decision to notify the draft order to the more than one thousand demonstrators arrested during the spontaneous march on Wednesday has been confirmed. The democratic youth movement Vesna speaks of retaliation and intimidation. Peskov argues that this is a legal measure, as usual.
The countdown
Abbas Gallyamov, who was one of Putin’s first speechwriters, is convinced that the countdown has now begun. For most of the public, mobilization is still an abstract concept. They will begin to understand when their loved ones have received the call, and when some of them will return to their homeland in coffins. The soldiers killed so far have aroused no emotion, because they were professional soldiers. But the future deaths of the mobilized will be experienced as a terrible injustice. People that the state has taken away from normal life and sent to the slaughterhouse. The consequences will be seen later. And they will be devastating for the Kremlin ».
Perhaps these are the reasons why Putin has so far been reluctant to involve civilians, going so far as to exclude any form of mobilization. He had done so on March 8, when it was beginning to become clear that the Special Military Operation was not going to be a walk in the park, in his second address to the nation. “I understand your fears for loved ones, but I assure you they will not be called.”
Le province remote
The first news arriving from the most remote provinces refer to summons sent to people over fifty years of age, a personal detail which, if confirmed, would enlarge the audience of conscripts well beyond three hundred thousand units. Oreshkin says that mass sabotage will soon begin. «It is now clear that the Moscow Sun is not working. And people just want to get off the wheel, as we are already beginning to see ».
Uncertainty produces fear and queues at the borders. Almost five thousand people have taken refuge in Finland. Daily entries from Russia to Armenia have tripled.
Germany said it was ready to welcome any deserters. In just two days, three military enlistment centers have already been attacked by Molotov cocktails. Vesna has called for demonstrations in the main cities for Saturday. They will end with the usual manhunt. But this time they might as well be a start.
September 23, 2022 (change September 23, 2022 | 07:09)
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