NBC News spoke with a number of women who are part of a growing movement calling for their loved ones to be discharged from the military and allowed to return to civilian life.
In a rare challenge to the Kremlin, a growing number of Russian women are fighting to bring home their husbands, brothers and sons who were drafted to fight in Ukraine.
They say the men have served their time on the front lines, 15 months after some 300,000 reservists were called up to bolster Russia’s struggling campaign. But with little sign of President Vladimir Putin scaling back his ambitions, the military is ignoring their pleas and propagandists have sought to villainize those speaking out.
The women’s mounting frustration has bonded them together, providing common cause in their defiant public stand just months before Putin will extend his rule in an election.
In a rare challenge to the Kremlin, a growing number of Russian women are fighting to bring home their husbands, brothers and sons who were drafted to fight in Ukraine.
Thats going to be tough to do because many of them are likely dead and the families haven’t been told yet.
Thats going to be tough to do because many of them are
likely deaddeserted and the families haven’t been told yet.Fixed that for you. Deserters don’t get paid.
It’s not much of a challenge if he doesn’t care.
Has no one told them about the mobile crematoriums?
It’s Russia so…нет.
Next you’re gonna tell me me they all love their children, just like Americans and Ukrainians, and we should all just stop this nonsense.
How do u suppose we do that?
Personally, I think Russian forces withdrawing from Ukrainian territory and Putin putting a bullet in his head would be a good start.
I concur with PugJesus
I think a himars to the face might be a better solution for Putin.
ICCBM missile test with a kinetic kill prototype dropped on his ass.
“Opps. Guidance system had mid flight failure. Reverted to old coordinates.”
It’s the kind of excuse they use.
I just hope they stay safe. This stuff is extremely dangerous in Russia.
I have a feeling the next generation economy over there will be driven almost entirely by mail order brides.
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Don’t you mean mail order grooms?
There is no money going in that direction.
No, they need exports
…if russia needs men and china needs women that sounds like a demographic imbalance poised to resolve itself…
That’s a lot of women that are going to mysteriously fall out windows in Russia.
mysteriously fall out windows in Russia.conscripted into Russia’s army where they’ll be sexually abused and used as cannon fodder for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin really needs to die, preferably at the hands of a fed up Russian citizen, in way that sends a clear warning to whoever takes his place.
Tragic womanhood is in this country’s DNA, from crying Yaroslavna to decemberist’s wives. Even if it’s not as pure as we could’ve wanted, it’s one of the last sacred things no one’s ready to touch. Even in prison context, waiting female relatives are saints. That’s maybe the last form of public protest that won’t land you in jail. I feel like that situation is watched closely, even from the frontline, especially from there. That’s a ticking bomb, and the more it goes, the harder it is to defuse. I’d probably be cautious of agents provocateers and moles in this informal movement, because derailing it into some other problem, like finding a ‘proof’ they are paid or pushing one such meeting over the fence into illegal zone are probably the most obvious ways to discredit them with as less blood as possible, and that happened many times in our history. I hope they’d be safe.
I guess they want their property confiscated.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
One of the women’s main issues is with Putin’s mobilization decree, which does not clearly lay out an end date for draftees’ service, leaving the men at the Kremlin’s disposal indefinitely.
At a meeting at a cozy party venue in eastern Moscow last week, which NBC News attended, some of the wives said they wanted the whole country to see that they are “ordinary Russian women” and their stories are real.
Their most outspoken activist, Maria Andreeva, was temporarily held by police officers after standing with a banner in front of a monument close to the Kremlin last weekend, but she told NBC News she was let go shortly after.
Leading Kremlin propagandists like state TV host Vladimir Solovyov have been trying to discredit the women in social media posts labeling them foreign-sponsored saboteurs, linking them to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and accusing them of trying to destabilize Russia.
Putin is running for his fifth term in March, and although the result is in little doubt, the Kremlin will be seeking to avoid any high-profile confrontations, especially with a group whose members are far from hardened opposition activists and whose partners are still on the front lines.
Paulina started a separate Telegram channel in which she reveals her face as she documents her efforts to get her husband back, and takes part in protest actions with “The Way Home” activists.
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