Some Russians Say They Don’t Want to Fight in Syria under Slogan ‘For Putin and for the Oligarchs’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 13 – During World War II, Soviet soldiers went to their deaths chanting “For the Motherland, for Stalin;” but 30 years later, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in his letter to the Soviet leaders that Russians would not die in a war against China because of differences of opinion as to whether “the sacred truth” was on page 533 or page 335 of Lenin’s works.

            Now, some Russians are questioning what slogan they would be asked to fight under in Syria and insisting that they don’t want to fight under one like “For Putin! For Sechin!” or “For Putin! For the Ozero Cooperative!”  (newsland.com/community/4765/content/a-chto-to-ia-mne-ne-khochetsia-bezhat-v-ataku-s-krikami-za-putina-za-sechina/6297147  and newsland.com/community/7268/content/mys-li-vslukh-za-rossiiu-za-putina-ili-za-siriiu-za-asada/6296831).

            Those aren’t sufficient reasons, these writers say, when Russia doesn’t even have a defense treaty with Syria and the notion that what Putin learned on the Leningrad streets 50 years ago – to strike first if a fight is inevitable – isn’t good enough either, especially if they are being asked to fight and die not for Russia but for Putin and his oligarchs or “for Syria and for Asad.”