Russia: Increasing official criticism of partial mobilization
Created: 09/24/2022, 17:05
A Russian recruit looks through a bus window at his crying mother as he says goodbye in Volgograd.
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
Russia's leadership is desperately looking for fighters for Ukraine.
Apparently the convocations are sometimes chaotic.
An official speaks of a "stick system".
Moscow - A few days after the partial mobilization ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for Russia's war against Ukraine, criticism of the military's actions is increasing from official sources.
The head of the Russian President's Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, called on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to end the "bludgeoning system" at many conscription boards in the country.
Even men who had no combat experience would get draft orders.
In view of the defeats of the Russian army in Ukraine, 300,000 reservists are to be mobilized to hold occupied areas there.
In the Yakutia region in Siberia, the head of the republic, Aissen Nikolayev, admits that mistakes have been made in the military district offices.
Men were drafted who did not fall under the mobilization.
“Reservists were drafted incorrectly, they have to be sent back.
Work has already begun,” said Nikolayev.
A goodbye hug in front of a bus with Russian recruits.
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
In the social networks in Russia there are numerous cases in which fathers of large families, men without combat experience or older and chronically ill reserve officers report that they have been drafted.
Nikolayev said that the decisions of the military commissariats need to be better checked.
Putin's strategy puzzles many
Meanwhile, thousands continued to flee the country to avoid conscription.
The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus, Ramzan Kadyrov, called those leaving the country "lazybones", "useless" and "cowards" who should leave because they could only harm the army.
At the same time he said that Russia actually has enough resources without reservists.
There are five million well-prepared people in Russia who can handle weapons.
The astonishment and criticism in Russian society has been great for days because Putin is mobilizing reservists, but not the members of the various security structures.
There are around a million soldiers alone, plus the National Guard and Interior Ministry troops, as well as some prison security forces.
"If 50 percent of the staff is left on duty, then the other half, in a number of 2.5 million people, will defeat any western army.
And the reserve is not necessary,” he said.
dpa