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.
I’m not sure there is one anymore.
Dwarfed though it is by the heartbreaking tragedy being inflicted on Ukraine, it’s tragic too to see Putin’s militaristic propaganda embed itself so completely, even among the country’s youth.
I doubt even a full mobilisation would cause sufficient unrest to end the war now, nor would an even higher rate of Russian casualties cause Putin to cease his tyrannical conquest.
The last Russian revolution in 1917 was driven by military losses and lack of food. Putin has been avoiding Russian losses by using Indians, Cubans, and prisoners instead of the Russian population. Not sure how they’re doing on food.
You forgot the Syrian mercenaries.
To be fair I also forgot the Russian mercenaries. Remember Wagner Group? Apparently they’re being absorbed into the Russian National Guard now.
I don’t get why you guys view it this way. They, as Russians, are being utilized by the state and expended in a war of conquest that was initiated by an autocratic leader. The nation has paid a steep economic cost for it. That’s hard fact.
But it’s also hard fact that their Russian nation is gaining territory. It is true that their country doesn’t control its strategic environment, their historic rivals in America and Western Europe. It is true that the last time they let these rivals lead them somewhere, it was to national decline and humilation.
So yes, it is a tragedy, but the same one that characterizes the history of nations, and there is a rational element to the ideology that so many Russians now follow. The danger is the irrational element which turns this nationalist war into a racial or religious crusade, which are present but in my view not dominant.