Putin’s draft draws Russian resistance
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise draft to reinforce his invasion of Ukraine ran into growing resistance Friday across Russia as villagers, activists and elected officials asked why the conscription drive appeared to be hitting minority groups and rural areas harder than the big cities.
Putin announced the callup Wednesday, describing it as a “partial mobilization” necessary to counter Ukraine and its Western backers, who he said were seeking Russia’s destruction.
Russia would mobilize about 300,000 civilians, defense officials said, focusing on men with military experience and special skills, although some Russian media that now operate outside the country reported that the number could be much higher. But by Friday, even some of the hawkish commentators who had been urging a draft were criticizing the way it appeared to be rolling out.
A popular pro-war blog on Telegram, Rybar, described receiving “huge numbers of stories” of people with health problems or without combat experience getting draft notices, even as some volunteers were being turned away.
Rather than helping Russia’s war effort, hawks warned, the chaotic conscription could end up harming it. Some said the military officials carrying out the order cared more about formally fulfilling orders than winning the war.
“If we’re doing a mobilization, then it should be the foundation of strengthening the army,” Andrei Medvedev, a Moscow lawmaker, wrote on Telegram. “And not the cause of upheaval.”
In Yakutia, an association representing the region’s main ethnic group, the Sakha, warned that the draft could have dire consequences there. Even a member of Russian parliament who represents the region, Sardana Avksentieva, wrote Thursday on social media that she had heard of a 300-person village in which 47 men were called up.
There were signs of turmoil as soon as Putin announced the draft, despite his characterization of it as only “partial.”
A new wave of Russians packed flights, cars and buses out of the country. And Russian businesses, including airlines, tech companies and agricultural firms, were concerned about how the call-up could affect them, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
Amid those questions, the Defense Ministry said Russian men with certain white-collar jobs would not be called on to join the war effort. In parliament, lawmakers promised to give draftees a break from loan payments and require employers to keep their jobs.
Analysts say Putin had put off declaring a draft, despite his military’s widespread crew shortages and heavy losses, fearing a domestic backlash.
Far-flung regions, minority groups and rural areas appeared to be the hardest hit, at least at the outset. Kirill Shamiev, who studies Russian civil-military relations at the Central European University in Vienna, said that was because remote areas and marginalized groups were seen as less likely to protest.
Still, he said, the Kremlin’s approach of “obey or you’ll be repressed” could backfire when conscripts return from the front lines to tell the truth about the war to their communities.
Several community organizations published open letters requesting that the draft be suspended for the region’s ethnic minorities, asserting that even in World War II, the Soviet Union’s Arctic Indigenous peoples were not mobilized because there were so few of them.
“The villages will just find it hard to survive without men and that is why they need to figure this out,” Ivan Shamayev, chair of the Sakha Congress and the signatory of one letter, said in a phone interview.