"You are his cannon fodder": Now Russian minorities are rebelling against Putin's war
Created: 08/03/2022 04:58
By: Patrick Mayer
Russian minorities openly criticize high casualties in the Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian politician makes a thorny Moscow comparison.
Munich/Moscow - Can Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin go through with his war in Ukraine without criticism from Russia?
Apparently not, despite the fact that independent media hardly exist anymore.
But: A non-governmental organization (NGO) is apparently protesting publicly.
This is because of the allegedly high number of casualties among Russian soldiers, who accordingly come from poor areas of the country of 144 million inhabitants, in which mainly ethnic minorities live.
War in Ukraine: Russian minorities apparently criticize high losses among soldiers
As the Austrian
Kronen-Zeitung
writes, the "Asians of Russia Foundation" was only founded this year.
Aiming to represent Asian minorities and indigenous peoples in Russia.
Founder Wassili Matenow is quoted as saying that the organization is committed to "endangered and numerically small peoples who are discriminated against by the Russian state".
A post by the organization on Instagram in early July said: "Right now the main task is to try to stop the war in which all peoples without exception are being drawn!
Horrifying statistics on dead civilians in Ukraine and catastrophic statistics on dead soldiers of national minorities!” The post received more than 1,450 likes and the page has 123,000 followers (as of July 25, 2022, 8:00 p.m.).
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Ukraine war: Is Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin primarily using national minorities?
The reports that Kremlin boss Putin and his defense minister Sergei Shoigu are primarily deploying soldiers far away from the metropolises of Moscow and St. Petersburg have been increasing for weeks.
According to British intelligence chief Richard Moore, Putin has so far mainly resorted to "poor people from rural areas": "They come from working-class towns in Siberia and belong to a disproportionately high proportion of ethnic minorities.
And they are his cannon fodder.”
They come from working-class towns in Siberia.
And they are his cannon fodder.
Richard Moore, British intelligence chief
According to the online portal
Watson
, an interactive map was already circulating on the Internet at the beginning of April, on which an Estonian had created a map using Google Maps and the passport data of Russian soldiers published by the Ukrainian secret service.
Featuring the places of origin of 1674 Russian officers and soldiers who attacked Ukraine north of Kyiv.
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They came from far-flung regions in southern Russia, along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Far East.
The places where the passports were issued were sometimes thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine.
Moscow, with its around twelve million inhabitants, and St. Petersburg, with around five million inhabitants, are apparently supposed to hear as little as possible about the fighting.
Certainly no metal coffins of fallen soldiers.
War in Ukraine: Russian soldiers probably come mainly from Dagestan and Buryatia
According to research by the organization "Mediazona", once founded by Pussy Riot activists, the fewest war casualties come from these two megacities, which are also the administrative centers of the country.
The advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, even quotes Ukrainian sources as saying that Russian authorities would pay families of deceased soldiers from Moscow three times as much in “compensation” as families of fallen soldiers from Buryatia.
Supposedly so that they don't cause a stir in Moscow.
The Autonomous Republic of Buryatia was once part of the Mongol Empire.
Under fire: An alleged Russian tank column in March just outside of Kyiv.
© Screenshot Twitter@Defence intelligence of Ukraine
"Putin is trying to send mostly ethnic minorities to war," Gerashchenko wrote on Twitter.
The organization "Mediazona" also explains that most of the dead soldiers come from the poor regions of Dagestan and Buryatia, where the average monthly wage is around 200 euros and a contract as a temporary soldier brings in a comparatively large amount of money.
In its research, the organization combs through openly accessible sources such as local newspapers or obituaries on the Internet.
At least some resistance seems to be stirring in these rural areas.
The Kronen-Zeitung
writes that protest groups of ethnic minorities have formed in enclaves in Tuva and Buryatia
.
The major daily newspaper from Vienna refers to the website
understandingwar.org
, according to which the Kremlin draws its fighting strength from the fringe groups of Russian society.
Meanwhile, two high-ranking German politicians are traveling to Ukraine to get an idea of the war zone.
A published recording makes waves on the internet.
(pm)
