Telegram / NOSVomen record videos demanding the return of their mobilized partner
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 06:48
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Chiem Balduk
Foreign Editor
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Chiem Balduk
Foreign Editor
“All I want is for him to see his children grow up.” The Russian Ina is desperate. Her husband has been stationed at the front in Ukraine since September 2022. There is no prospect of return. “When he was drafted, our children were 1 and 2 years old. They are now growing up without a father.”
Protest in Russia has become a rarity, but in recent weeks a striking counter-narrative has become increasingly common. It comes from women like Ina, who worry about their husband, son or father in the military. They demand to return home.
The women record videos with emotional messages. “Please let my husband live,” begs a woman from the Samara region. “My husband has partially lost his sight and hearing, let him recover at home,” says a fellow sufferer in another video. “Share this video on your social media!”
An excerpt from the supplications:
‘Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, we want justice for our men!’
The women choose their words carefully. The protest is not against the war itself, or against war crimes that are being committed. The women especially want their loved ones to be replaced by a new recruit. The videos contain a striking number of stories of wounded men who are forced to continue fighting.
“I am also against the war itself, but it is too dangerous to say so,” Ina says via Telegram. For fear of persecution, she is extremely cautious and speaks on an anonymous basis. “But there are also women who have lost their husbands and still support the war. That’s how strong the propaganda is here.”
Criminals do go home
The Russian-language independent medium Vazhnje Istori reports that Moscow is increasingly receiving complaints about the mobilization. Since the start of the war, 180,000 complaints have been received. For comparison: in all of 2018 there were 2,300. Most grievances were about payouts, mobilization or extension of the contract period, according to the news site.
Much anger is directed at the lack of leave, while most have been away from home for a year. What is extra sad is that recruited prisoners are allowed to go home after six months as a reward. “Their punishment will then be waived, while my husband will be punished and have to stay longer,” one of the women says in a video.
Russia correspondent Geert Groot Koerkamp:
This discontent started at the end of September, a year after the ‘partial mobilization’. The women receive signals that their men are morally and physically exhausted, while they are told from Moscow that they are needed as long as the ‘special military operation’ continues. So that could take years.
Although this protest is small, it has the potential to become bigger. It is not about the traditional opposition that is against the war, but rather the group that is actually on the Kremlin’s side. When there were concerns about a possible protest at Red Square, a huge police force was immediately deployed. That shows that the Kremlin fears a bigger protest.
Demonstrating on the street is not an option. The required permit is rejected by default, invoking the corona rules. Once a meeting was allowed in Novosibirsk, but behind closed doors.
An alternative are subtle actions, such as hanging protest messages in Christmas trees on the street:
Telegram Christmas wishes with the texts ‘Where is the justice?’ and ‘Bring Dad Back’
The fear of repression is great. One of the action groups, Weg naar Huis, says that the secret service FSB actively tracks down the husbands of protesting women. They would be interrogated, threatened and forced to reassure the home front.
There are a lot of rumors going around, says the Siberian Ina. “It is said that husbands of protesting women are sent to the ‘meat grinder’.” This comes down to the front line, where Ukrainian positions are often stormed with poor equipment. “I definitely don’t want that. I don’t think it will happen either, but it does scare other women.”
I don’t want to become a slave without rights.
Ina
Ina also encounters resistance from her environment. “I had hung a poster on the balcony with the text ‘Give the children back their fathers’. A few days later my mother-in-law came by in tears: the poster had to be taken down. ‘Do you know which country you live in?’ she said.”
The Russian says she knows many women who are in the same situation. “In some cases the husband has died, in many cases he is ‘missing’.” It is known that killed soldiers are often registered as missing, so that no surviving relatives benefit has to be paid. Some of the women continue to support the war, Ina says. “That’s how strong the propaganda is here.”
Ina nevertheless sounds combative. “I don’t want to become a slave without rights and keep my mouth shut.” She hopes to see her husband again soon. In the meantime, she fills the house with photos of him. “So that our children don’t forget him.”
2023-12-25 05:48:31
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