Paul Goble
Staunton. Dec. 11 – Vladimir Putin has ordered that veterans of his war in Ukraine be given preferential treatment in admissions to and support for higher education, a directive that is already having the effect of reducing opportunities for others, including the most gifted. Parents and politicians are outraged and some politicians and public figures are demanding changes.
Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov complained to the Presidential Human Rights Council last month that the provision of so many slots for veterans in universities was limiting opportunities for other Russian students (absatz.media/news/142537-rossiya-mozhet-ispolzovat-golubej-kiborgov-na-fronte-naravne-s-boevymi-delfinami).
And now Andrey Kolesnik, who earlier served in the Duma as a United Russia deputy and now works as a legislator in Kaliningrad, has called on the Russian legislature to consider increasing the number of government-subsidized slots in higher education so those that aren’t veterans could still have a chance (absatz.media/news/144327-v-gosdume-nashli-reshenie-kak-spravitsya-s-nehvatkoj-byudzhetnyh-mest-v-vuzah-iz-za-lgot-dlya-detej-bojcov-svo).
These two complaints are likely to grow as more veterans return and occupy positions in universities and elsewhere that Russians who had not served there had expected would be available to them or their children. (On this larger problem, see business-gazeta.ru/article/689691.)
Budgetary stringencies in Moscow make it unlikely that the Russian government will be able to meet these demands and that in turn suggests that ever more Russians will be infuriated by the privileges veterans are getting at the expense of themselves and their families, yet another source of tensions in Russia if and when Putin’s war ends.
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