The mobilization has been a real shitshow so far, and its handling has provoked open, harsh criticism from the leaders of both the upper and lower duma.
Russia’s two most senior lawmakers on Sunday addressed a string of complaints about Russia’s mobilisation drive, ordering regional officials to get a handle on the situation and swiftly solve the “excesses” that have stoked public anger.
Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, said she was aware of reports of men who should be ineligible for the draft being called up.
“Such excesses are absolutely unacceptable and I consider it absolutely right that they are triggering a sharp reaction in society,” she said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower chamber, also expressed concern in a separate post.
“Complaints are being received,” he said. “If a mistake is made, it is necessary to correct it… Authorities at every level should understand their responsibilities.”
There’s a deeply cynical explanation for this. Outside of wartime, Russian conscripts can’t be forced to serve outside of Russian territory - or at least what Russia considers to be Russian territory. This way, Putin can try to have his cake and eat it too, it’s still only a ‘special military operation,’ not a war, but the four Ukrainian Oblasts that the ‘not-war’ is being fought in are now legally a part of Russia according to Russia, so there’s no legal obstacle to deploying all of the mobilized conscripts there. A lot was made in the news initially of Putin’s broken record threats of nuclear warfare with this territory now being considered Russian territory by Russia, but nothing’s actually changed in that regard from the first days of the war. That it’s allowing the deployment of those mobilized to the ‘conflict’ while maintaining the fiction that it’s not a war is more meaningful by far.
Another thing that’s almost been going under the radar is that contract soldiers can and are having their terms of contract involuntarily extended indefinitely while mobilization is in effect under the new law, so all of those volunteers from the most impoverished parts of Russia who signed 6-month contracts attracted by the extremely high pay compared to any other economic options they had are now finding out that they can’t leave when their term is up; they’re in it for the long haul. I doubt they’re going to be getting those huge pay bonuses on their extensions either, both of those combined are going to have an effect on morale, probably serious.