Fires & lies. A mysterious resistance to avoid the frontline.
Author: Guido Baratta | Image: Getty
A series of mysterious fires in Russian recruitment centers reveals that the Kremlin is keeping a few things away from pruning eyes. The first is that not all citizens of the Federation are enthusiastic about the Spring conscription (from April 1 to mid-July), which will send 135,000 young people into the hands of the conscripted army. The second is that a secret mobilization is underway in Russia. Such lobbying does not need Putin's official declaration of total war on Ukraine to get underway.
Six days ago in Nizhnevartovsk, western Siberia, two men threw seven Molotov cocktails at the window of the draft office, setting it on fire. Five other military offices were burned in Mordovia, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, Ivanovo, and Lukhovitsy regions. This latest incident is the sixth since Putin decided to invade Ukraine and coincides with the parade days for the anniversary of the victory against Nazi Germany, where many believe a general mobilization would be announced.
The news site Verstka Media reported the testimony of the wife of a Moscow metro employee, who spoke of a strange meeting with executives that her husband was forced to attend. In the meeting, people were asked to undergo an extraordinary medical examination for a possible dispatch to war in Ukraine. No documents were shown, and no signatures were required at that time. However, the company management was asked to allocate a certain number of volunteers to the possible call to fight, threatening a possible dismissal if they refused.
Even in the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and Crimea, there is evidence of a hidden mobilization alongside the "official" one. Shortly before February 24, cars were circulating in the busy Donbass with loudspeakers mounted on the roof with a severe loud voice: "Defending the homeland is the sacred duty of every man."
In addition, to those signals, the two heads of the republics have issued decrees for general mobilization, stating that companies should send 50% of their male employees of conscription age to military registration and enlistment offices. The managers of these companies had to decide who was eligible for mobilization and who was not. Almost immediately after, there were reports of men being captured on the street, taken away from work and home, and sent to special training camps.
The Kremlin is quiet and is still proclaiming that while spring conscription is underway, no conscripts will not be sent into the frontline but will be used as a troops support system. However, a Putin spokesman said weeks ago that Russia would not send conscripts to Ukraine. Still, many of the soldiers that were taken prisoner near Kyiv during their retreat are indeed young conscripts.
