Faced with mothers of soldiers, the Russian president was optimistic about the evolution of the course of the “special operation”. He urged them not to believe “lies” about invading Ukraine.
Russia willachieve its goalsin Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Friday, November 25, during a meeting organized by the Kremlin with mothers of Russian soldiers and mobilized, broadcast on public television.
He lashed out at “enemies in the information fieldwho seek, according to him, todevalue, discredit» The Russian offensive in Ukraine. “We must achieve our goals, and we will achieve them“, he said.
Numerous violations recorded
“I want you to know that I, personally, all the leaders of the country, we share this pain. We know nothing can replace the loss of a son“, he said, looking serious. “Life is more complicated than what you see on TV or on the Internet (…), there are a lot of lies“, added the Russian president, while relatives of soldiers denounce on social networks the conditions in which some are sent to fight.
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The Kremlin, after ordering a partial mobilization in September, had assured that the hundreds of thousands of conscripts would undergo solid training, receive good equipment and not be sent to the front line. But many violations have been recorded: death at the front of mobilized; mobilization of unfit men, fathers of large families or too old; lack of adequate equipment and military training for many conscripts.
This disorderly mobilization, which pushed the power to admit “errorsspread concern among the relatives of the soldiers sent to Ukraine. This concern, which risks degenerating into discontent, puts the Kremlin in a delicate situation: if the authorities relentlessly repress any questioning of the offensive in Ukraine, the word of soldiers’ wives is sacred and imprisoning them would shock Russia. .
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Before Friday’s meeting, relatives of soldiers told AFP that they felt they were not being listened to by the Russian authorities. Olga Tsoukanova, mother of a young man doing his military service, castigated in advance a meeting with “mothers out of his sleeve, who will ask the right questions and thank him, as always“.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich, answer our questions!“says this woman who wants to make sure that her 20-year-old son will not be illegally sent to the front. She came specially to Moscow from the city of Samara, 900 km to the east, in the hope of being received in the Kremlin. In vain. “I imagine they’re afraid we’ll ask awkward questions. But we have to solve the problem!The Russian president knows how sensitive the subject of soldiers’ relatives is.
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Legitimacy of the status of wife and mother
In August 2000, during the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk which caused the death of its 118 crew members, he was strongly criticized, accused of having been slow to react. And during the two wars of Chechnya, a movement of mothers of soldiers had also embarrassed the power.
This time, faced with a climate of heightened repression, the protests by soldiers’ wives and mothers do not directly question the offensive in Ukraine, but some denounce the conditions in which their relatives are sent there. And their status as mothers and wives of mobilized men, gone to serve their country, gives them legitimacy and a form of protection against persecution.
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In Russian society,there is the unconscious feeling that women have the rightto demand accountability from power, notes Alexeï Levinson, sociologist at the independent Levada center. For now, the movement is disparate, uncoordinated. Calls from relatives in distress are broadcast on social networks, where informal collectives gather around figureheads.
This is the case of Olga Tsoukanova who also militates at the same time for a controversial opponent, Svetlana Peounova, wanted in Russia and accused of promoting conspiracy theories.
“We don’t want to cause them any more problems”
Other women still fear getting into trouble or making things worse for loved ones by talking to the press, especially foreign ones.
“We have sent official letters to the authorities“, Writes to AFP one of them, on condition of anonymity. “It’s not the journalists who are going to get our men out of the trenches and we don’t want to cause them any more problems.»