Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 12 – Many news outlets have featured stories about how the Russian government is using pardons of prisoners and ever larger bonuses to attract men to serve in the ever-depleting ranks of Putin’s invasion force in Ukraine. But the independent Holod news agency says that Moscow is increasingly using other repressive and deceptive means as well.
Among the most widespread of these other means, the agency says on the basis of conversations with those who have been subject to them and groups that seek to protect their rights (holod.media/2024/11/12/rossijskie-vlasti-ispolzuyut-novye-metody-verbovki-na-vojnu/) are the following:
• Attracting men with false advertisements that promise one kind of work but that after the individuals sign up send them to the front;
• Threatening former convicts with new charges and prison sentences unless they agree to join the military; and
• Telling draftees that they will be sent into combat unless they sign up for longer terms of service – and then sending them to the frontlines anyway.
Holod isn’t in a position to say how widespread these practices are, let alone give statistics about them. But these reports do highlight something that many observers have pointed out in recent months: Despite the support of the Russian people for Putin’s war, that support doesn’t extend to volunteering to fight there.
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