Russians who have taken to the streets and protested against the war in Ukraine now risk being sent to war themselves. It is the independent Russian human rights media project OVD-Info, which reports that this is happening in at least 16 police districts including Moscow and St Petersburg. According to Danmarks Radio, OVD-Info is now working to provide legal assistance to the arrested demonstrators. The demonstrators are said to have been handed summons papers while they were at the police station. On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an escalation of the war in Ukraine. According to Putin, this should take place through a “partial military mobilization” by calling up 300,000 reservists to participate in the battles against the Ukrainians. Barely two days after Putin’s speech, everything suggests that everyone possible can be summoned. The Russian military itself claims that 10,000 have volunteered to fight in Ukraine. Have no choice Viktor Bugreyev lives in Moscow and works with data in a bank. – I received a summons yesterday that I must report to the military at 1500 today, Bugreyev tells Russian media. Viktor Bugreyev holds up the letter showing that he must report for service in the defense forces in Russia. Photo: OSTOROZHNO NOVOSTI He shows the paper with the summons, and adds that he is not a reservist, has never served in the armed forces, or has any military experience whatsoever. When asked by the journalist what he is going to do now, he answers quickly: – I have to show up, I have no choice, otherwise I will be prosecuted. Refusing to be drafted into the war is punishable by up to 15 years in prison in Russia. Picking up students When President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was asked yesterday whether it is appropriate to call arrested protesters into the army, the answer was: “It is not against the law.” Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov believes that it is not against the mobilization law to call up those who are not on the reservist list. Photo: SPUTNIK / Reuters – It is not a partial mobilization, it is a 100% mobilization, Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation in eastern Siberia, told The Guardian. In the past 24 hours, activist groups have received and identified more than 3,000 reports about what they believe is the call-up of people to the armed forces who are not on the reservist list. The independent think tank Institute for the study of war says the Russian authorities are now breaking their promise to only recruit people with military experience. They also point to the messaging service Telegram in a video from the University of the Republic of Buryatia in the southern part of Siberia revealing that the military police enter lectures and take out students. This is despite the fact that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said several times that students will not be mobilized. Going after immigrant communities Tankesmien also writes that it is likely that the Kremlin will mobilize ethnically non-Russian and immigrant communities at a disproportionate rate. A member of the Kremlin’s Russian Human Rights Council, Kirill Kabanov, proposed compulsory military service for Central Asian immigrants who have received Russian citizenship in the past ten years, threatening to confiscate their Russian citizenship if they do not mobilize. Furthermore, the think tank writes that an Armenian Telegram channel published a mobilization list from Tuapse on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea, which allegedly consists of 90 percent ethnic Armenian residents, despite the fact that the city’s total Armenian community is only 8.5% of the population. the military mobilization is much larger than the 300,000 Putin spoke of. The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that a source in the presidential administration said that Russia was trying to draft more than 1 million people into the army. This has not been confirmed by other media. But video and reports from across Russia have shown conscription taking place even in small towns, suggesting the numbers could be far higher. And it is far from just ordinary people in the districts who oppose this. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov had to defend his 32-year-old son on Thursday after opposition activists accused him of refusing to go to war. Supporters of the imprisoned Alexei Navalny reportedly called Nikolai Peskov and posed as recruits from the military. They ordered him to appear at the nearest session office. Peskov is said to have then refused to accept the order and said that he will solve this “at a higher level.” Dmitry Peskov stated on Thursday that he is aware of the conversation, but that his son’s statements were taken out of context. Asks Russians to protest Zelenenskyj is urging Russians to protest the partial mobilization of reserve forces that Putin announced on Wednesday. In Zelensky’s daily video speech, he addresses Russians and says that 55,000 Russians have already lost their lives in the war. – Do you want more? No? So protest, he urges. Zelenskyy says Russians who do not speak up are complicit in the “crimes, murders and torture against Ukrainians”.
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