Across Russia, the summoning of people who are supposed to be exempt is causing an outcry.
This Sunday, the Russian authorities promised to repair the "errors" committed within the framework of the mobilization decreed by Vladimir Putin.
By announcing Wednesday this "partial" mobilization of reservists to go to Ukraine, the Russian president had stressed that only people with military experience or "relevant" skills would be called.
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But several cases of people over combat age, ill or otherwise exempt, have sparked outraged reactions on social media, sparking embarrassment and concern from authorities.
A 63-year-old diabetic summoned
In the Volgograd region, in the south-west of the country, it is a 63-year-old retired soldier, suffering from severe diabetes and brain problems, who was dismissed from the training center where he had been summoned , according to the authorities.
In the same region, the director of a small rural school, Alexandre Faltine, aged 58, received a mobilization order when he had not served in the army.
After the media coverage of his case, he was finally able to return home.
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Rarely in Russia, the president of the upper house of parliament, Valentina Matvienko, admitted these dysfunctions.
And curtly reprimanded the regional authorities, who supervise the mobilization.
“Improper cases of mobilization (…) arouse heated discussions in society and on social networks, she lamented in a press release.
Some people seem to think that it is more important to submit their report quickly than to properly fulfill an important mission for the State.
Such excesses are absolutely unacceptable.
Ensure that the partial mobilization is fulfilled in full respect of the announced criteria.
And without making a single mistake!
»
Concern over public reaction
These excesses are a new example of the organizational difficulties that have accompanied Russia's offensive against Ukraine from the start.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense dismissed the highest ranking officer in charge of logistics issues.
Even if the authorities present the mobilization of people supposed to be exempted as isolated cases, their declarations express a form of concern in the face of the indignant reaction of part of the population.
VIDEO.
Demonstrations, rush on plane tickets… the “partial mobilization” goes badly in Russia
On Saturday, the President of the Human Rights Council at the Kremlin, Valéri Fadeïev, urged Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to "urgently resolve the problems" noted since the start of the mobilization so as not to "undermine public confidence”.
He cited the examples of 70 fathers of large families mobilized in the Russian republic of Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, as well as nurses and midwives without any military experience in the Sverdlovsk region, summoned "under the threat of prosecution judicial” in the event of refusal.
Protesters mobilized… while in police custody
Valéri Fadeïev also criticized those who "deliver the mobilization orders at two o'clock in the morning, as if they took us all for (deserters)".
This method creates "discontent", he warned.
Several students also claimed to have been summoned when the authorities had promised that they would be exempted.
On Saturday evening, Vladimir Putin signed a decree providing an exemption for those studying at state universities or vocational schools.
Faced with this situation, the governors of the regions of Vladimir, near Moscow, and Leningrad, in the northwest, promised that those mobilized “by mistake” would return home.
Another controversial situation concerns the case of demonstrators against the offensive in Ukraine who received a mobilization order while in police custody.
There, the Kremlin indicated that it saw nothing “illegal”.
