By Yuliya Talmazan —
NBC News
In a rare challenge to Vladimir Putin's government, a growing number of Russian women are fighting
to bring home their husbands, brothers and sons who were recruited to fight in the invasion of Ukraine.
They assure that the men have fulfilled their duty on the front, 15 months after some 300,000 reservists were called up to reinforce the Russian offensive, which is experiencing difficulties.
But with few signs that Putin is reducing his ambitions in the neighboring country, the army ignores his pleas and propagandists have tried to
turn those who raise their voices into villains
.
The women's growing frustration has helped unite them, giving them common cause in their defiant public stance just months before Putin extends his mandate in upcoming elections.
NBC News spoke with several women who are part of a growing movement demanding that their loved ones be released from their obligations and allowed to return home.
She is among the few voices in Russia willing to publicly question the way the government is conducting the war, which continues to have a profound impact on the country.
“I need a husband at home”
Asya is one of those who is desperate for her husband to come home.
He was drafted in September 2022 and, more than a year later, is still in Ukraine serving in an artillery unit.
Now she fears that her husband, who worked as a driver before being called up,
will be stuck there indefinitely.
“Every day you try to get out of this hole and you think, 'How long can this last?'” Asya says by phone from her home in Moscow.
“How long can they make fun of us like that?”
Asya says that she has difficulties getting by alone with her one and a half year old daughter.
“She didn't plan to be a single mother,” she emphasizes.
“I need a husband at home.”
Like other women in this article, Asya did not want her last name or her husband's name published, for fear of reprisals.
Putin's war has brought a far-reaching crackdown on dissent in the country, and anything that may be perceived
as an opposition stance can lead to arrests or even jail.
However, Asya is not the only one expressing her dismay.
She says she wrote to regional and federal officials demanding answers, but, receiving none, she turned to other women facing the same situation.
They formed a group that became a channel on the Telegram messaging application called
The Way Home (Put' Domoi
, in Russian), which has more than 39,000 followers.
When the channel launched in August, administrators were still expressing support for the “special military operation,” as the Kremlin calls its invasion, and hoped Putin would intervene to return their husbands.
But with no response to his requests, his rhetoric has changed in recent weeks.
Women are increasingly questioning the purpose of the war, along with sometimes scathing criticism of the president himself.
“We have no hope under his leadership,” read one of his messages published last month.
The soldiers, at Putin's disposal indefinitely
One of the main problems for women is Putin's mobilization decree, which does not clearly establish an end date for conscripts' service, leaving men available indefinitely.
The group has attempted to organize protests across Russia, but says authorities have refused to sanction them due to pandemic restrictions, even though other public events have taken place.
They have engaged in acts of civil disobedience, such as wearing #returnmyhusband
stickers
on their clothes and cars, as well as laying flowers at war memorials around the country.
They also wear white scarves, as a sign of identity.
His profile has grown in recent weeks, culminating in a public hearing with Boris Nadezhdin, who plans to run against Putin in the March presidential election.
Nadezhdin, a liberal politician,
has described the war as the president's biggest mistake
.
It is unclear whether he will clear the 100,000 signature hurdle needed to get his name on the ballot, or to what extent he will be allowed to press his criticism of the war in an election that critics call a sham to maintain the illusion of democracy. .
At a meeting last week at a cozy party venue in eastern Moscow, attended by NBC News, some of the wives said they wanted the entire country to see that they are “
normal Russian women” and that their stories are real. .
There, they stated that they were willing to meet with any other candidate, including Putin himself, as well as with the Government propagandists who have been attacking their mobilization.
“We are fighting for justice,” a woman named Antonina, whose husband was mobilized and is currently injured, told the audience of dozens of women and journalists.
“But we are the bad ones, for some reason.”
So far,
The Road Home
has not reported any arrests of its activists, either for their public protests or for the meeting with Nadezhdin.
“Uncomfortable for the authorities”
Its most outspoken activist, Maria Andreeva, was temporarily detained by police officers after standing with a banner in front of a monument near the Kremlin last weekend, but told NBC News she was released shortly after.
Prominent Putin propagandists, such as state television host Vladimir Solovyov, have attempted to discredit the women on social media, calling them foreign-sponsored saboteurs, linking them to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and accusing them of trying to destabilize Russia.
The rejection is not surprising, according to Asya.
“We are uncomfortable for the authorities,” she adds.
Putin is running for his fifth term in March, and although the result is predictable, the Government will try to avoid any high-level confrontation.
It seems that the Russian president has chosen to ignore the issue, at least for now.
Putin did not raise the issue of this demobilization last month during his largest press conference on the war, even though the women said they had sent hundreds of questions to the president.
“The government faces a difficult choice,” says Abbas Gallyamov, a Russian political analyst and former speechwriter for Putin.
"The repressive machinery is tuned against the 'damned' liberals who learn in the West and the 'traitors' of the nation, but these women are not," he says.
“They are the people the Government is trying to represent, so any mass repression against them would be a completely different story.
It is not one that the public is going to like
,” he adds.
NBC News contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment but did not receive a response.
In an interview prior to the event in Moscow last week, Paulina said that her husband, a computer specialist, was called up in October 2022 and is currently serving as a soldier in eastern Ukraine.
“The worst has already happened to us”
Life has been “very difficult emotionally” without him as she cares for her young daughter, she told NBC News by phone from her home in the town of Dolgoprudny, just outside the capital.
Like Asya, Paulina also wrote to officials of all ranks, including the Presidential Administration, asking for her husband's demobilization, but only received generic responses.
She also attempted to organize a public protest in her city, but municipal authorities denied her permission.
He says
his patience is wearing thin.
Paulina opened a separate channel on Telegram in which she reveals her face while documenting her efforts to bring her husband back and participates in protest actions with activists from
The Way Home
.
Like the other women she spoke to NBC News, she says she is determined to keep up the fight.
“Every day could be the last for them there,” says Paulina, 20, referring to the soldiers in Ukraine.
“There is no reason to be afraid and hide, because the worst has already happened to us: they took our loved ones away.”