The partial mobilization of reservists to try to regain control of the Ukrainian front is going badly in Russia. A man opened fire on Monday at a Russian army recruiting center, seriously injuring an officer working there, with the Kremlin admitting “mistakes” in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine.
Because since the announcement of this mobilization, last week, many cases of elderly, sick or called students have been reported, while the authorities assured that they were exempt. On Monday morning, the shooting occurred at a military police station in Oust-Ilimsk, a remote town in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. The Russian government is accused of seeking to mobilize as a priority in poor and isolated areas.
Demonstrations are on the rise
The Russian Investigative Committee said the suspect, a 25-year-old resident, had been arrested. The victim is hospitalized in very serious condition. “Doctors are fighting for his life,” said Irkutsk region governor Igor Kobzev. The suspect’s mother told independent Russian media ASTRA that her son was “very upset” because his best friend had received the old call-up notice.
In recent days, demonstrations have multiplied in several disadvantaged regions against the partial and sometimes chaotic mobilization. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised on Monday to correct “mistakes”. Since the mobilization announced on September 21, crowds of Russians have also rushed to the country’s borders and to airports.
In this context, Dmitri Peskov suggested that a border closure was not excluded to prevent the departure of people of fighting age. “At the moment, we have not made any decisions regarding this issue,” he said. Earlier in the day, a Russian senator, Sergei Tsekov, had called for the borders to be closed to men aged 18 to 55.
2,300 people arrested in five days
In recent days, influxes of Russians have been reported at the borders of Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Those interviewed by AFP all said they were leaving to avoid being sent into combat.
According to the specialized NGO OVD-Info, more than 2,300 people have been arrested since September 21 during protest actions against the mobilization. This weekend, protests and scuffles with police took place in the Russian republic of Dagestan, a poor, multi-ethnic and Muslim-majority region of the Caucasus.
Since the launch of the attack in Ukraine, cases of Molotov cocktail attacks against military police stations have been repeatedly reported in Russian regions. Last example: the authorities reported such an attempt to set fire to a military police station in the Volgograd region overnight from Sunday to Monday. The mistaken mobilization of exempted people has fueled anxiety in homes.