It has been almost a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization drive throwing Ukraine into a frenzy and raising concerns for the US and its allies.
Putin’s orders on September 20 were to enlist up to 300,000 people between the ages of 18 and 50 in the Russian military. However, his efforts were met with hostilities in several parts of Russia.
Firstly, reports by Western media outlets pointed out that the recruitment drive for the partial mobilization concentrated mostly on remote, rural areas and targeted ethnic minorities living in Russia and also on annexed Ukrainian regions.
For the ethnic minorities living in Chechnya, Buryatia and other republics there is a growing sense that the Russian army is relying on ethnic minorities to provide for its ‘military operation’ in Ukraine.
There were protests in Altanbulag and Dagestan and at one troop enlistment center in Siberia a man fired on the recruitment officer. At least 726 people were detained in 32 cities across Russia for protesting against the mobilization call.
However, the mobilization drive was announced as completed on Monday evening. “According to the military commissar of Moscow, the partial mobilization tasks established on the basis of a presidential decree and the tasks of the Defense Ministry have been completed in full," Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin was quoted as saying, but there are reports that the new recruits are unhappy with the treatment meted out to them by the authorities.
Tough Conditions
According to the Bell, a Russian news media outlet that is often critical of the Kremlin, Russian conscripts were living in ‘squalid conditions, being issued with old equipment and being encouraged to buy their own body armor and medical supplies.’
The report by Bell, which was released last week, quoted two conscripts who bought essential items required by the military with their own money. A resident of Chelyabinsk who was called up for the war spent 40,000 rubles to buy thermal underwear, balaclavas and a push-button telephone and in Novosibirsk, a conscript and his girlfriend spent 130,000 rubles to buy essential equipment.
‘Putin’s Chef’ Angered
The supposed owner of Wagner Group – which sends privateers and mercenaries on behalf of Russia to Ukraine, Libya, Mali, Syria and other war torn nations – oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin lashed out at the State Duma for not supporting the ‘military operation’ enough.
“I’m calling on the talking heads to get together and lead units like Wagner while those who lack managerial skills can pick up automatic rifles or at least sapper’s shovels. This will be a true service to the Motherland," Prigozhin, who is usually reclusive, said, according to a report by the Telegraph UK.
Nicknamed Putin’s chef, Prigozhin, the owner of Wagner, was also allowed to tour Russian prisons looking for recruits for the ‘military operation’ in Ukraine.
The state of the Russian recruits also raises concerns regarding the state of weapons and artillery the Russian military possesses. The Bell in its report quoted a newly enlisted army man who said he was given rusty machine guns for a training exercise in Russia’s Far East.
The plane which crashed in Yeysk shortly after takeoff was the 10th Russian military jet to have crashed since February pointing out the strain of the war on the Russian military.
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