Spouses of mobilized Russian soldiers are increasingly speaking out on social media, annoying the Kremlin. At the same time, women are not against war as such.
More and more Russian women, whose husbands were sent to fight in Ukraine during the mobilization, are asking the authorities to bring their husbands home. Although the Kremlin has so far not applied harsh sanctions against women, this is an unpleasant development for Russian authorities.
Maria Andrejeva, who showed up at the Kremlin with a sign calling for her husband’s demobilization, became one of the prominent wives of those mobilized. The woman was arrested but later released without charge.
After her release, Andreeva gave an interview to the British publication The Times, in which she called the war in Ukraine a mistake.
“Only the authorities need this war. It has brought nothing but bad luck to the people,” he said.
Andrejeva calls for the return home of 300,000 mobilized men in September 2022. Her husband has been fighting in Ukraine for more than a year.
“They lied to us!” shouts Andrejeva, explaining that the Russian authorities have promised to demobilize the soldiers within six months to a year.
Andreeva, however, does not call Russia’s war against Ukraine a war, especially since in November she called a “special military operation” against Ukraine necessary.
At the same time, in her interview with the Times, Andreyeva repeated the false claim of Russian propaganda that the Butcha massacre did not happen. You also refused to comment on Russia’s destruction of Mariupol early in the war.
This may be why the Kremlin does not treat female mobilizers in the same way as anti-war opponents, many of whom have received long prison sentences.
“The authorities don’t know what to do [mobiliseeritud sõdurite naistega]because on the one hand they are enemies who demonstrate that not everything is as rosy as [Venemaa president Vladimir] Says Putin. On the other hand, most of these women say they are in favor of war and the defeat of Ukraine,” Michael Nacke, a Russian pacifist journalist living in exile, commented on the situation to the Times.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities are trying to calm women down and influence them in ways other than arrests and prison sentences.
“Persuade, promise something, pay – everything is suitable so that they do not take to the streets,” the Russian opposition online publication Insider describes the Kremlin’s instructions to officials.
However, the situation could change. Recently Adrejeva and her ilk have been increasingly active. For example, Andreeva, together with the wives of other soldiers, filmed on Saturday her conversation with a local representative of Putin’s election campaign, in which she asked what her husband would do with her in Ukraine if no one attacked Russia .
Additionally, Adreyeva recently met with aspiring Russian president Boris Nadezhdin, who, as a frequent guest on Russian state television, represents a supposedly anti-war position, offering to sign a peace treaty with Ukraine. At the same time, Nadezhdin considers the Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia after the September 2022 referendums to be Russian territory.
In her meeting with Nadezhdin, Andreeva complained that Russian authorities grant amnesty to criminals who have been fighting in Ukraine for six months, while those who have been mobilized continue to remain in the trenches.
The increasingly active activity of spouses mobilized shortly before the Russian presidential elections could mean that the Kremlin will take stronger measures against them in the near future.
“At the moment, the Kremlin does not consider this movement a threat. The main tactic is to downplay its importance. But over time, this problem will become more serious,” Russian analyst Tatyana Stanovaya told the Times.
2024-01-22 04:48:00
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