“In 2022, every fourth complaint to the presidency concerned the war. (The Russians) have been complaining to the Ministry of Defense more than in the last six years, ” writes the portal.
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Given that the Russians had virtually no other legal option to oppose the war, they apparently decided to turn directly to the head of state. In such a case, the law prohibits the citizen from being prosecuted.
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“Complaints to the president have become the only way to learn about the missing soldiers and express dissatisfaction with the war,” the website wrote.
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The highest number of complaints against the Ministry of Defense came in April, almost 624 thousand, which is more than in the previous three months combined. Of these, almost 56,000 explicitly referred to the “deployment of Russian forces abroad” and 42,000 to the “search for captured and missing” family members.
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Putin’s popularity?
The Russian government has not released any official casualty figures since the March 25, when it said 1,351 people had died during the conflict in Ukraine. The families of the deployed soldiers are obviously starting to ask what is going on.
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An independent investigation has since estimated the number of deaths at more than three thousand, according to publicly available data from local authorities and social media, the Moscow Times reports. However, the real number of Russians killed in Ukraine will be greater. The Guardian newspaper estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 on Friday, referring to an unnamed security source.
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According to a survey conducted by the last remaining independent Russian poll agency Levada Center at the end of May, 77 percent of Russians still support the war against Ukraine.
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However, some sociologists point out that critics of the invasion and regime do not comment in similar surveys, so the number cannot be considered representative. Others argue that Putin’s support is indeed so high, due to systematic and thorough propaganda.
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The inability to conquer Kyiv was a turning point
According to political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky, April was a turning point for those people who still believed in the official reports and whose loved ones went to fight in Ukraine. According to the political scientist, the truth came to light when Russia lost the first phase of the war, in which it failed to conquer Kyiv or Chernihiv or other large cities in the central part of Ukraine and in the northeast of the country. Russian troops had to withdraw from the north and northeast of Ukraine to regroup, and the troops could again communicate with relatives. In addition, since the end of March, news of the Russian army’s losses has begun to seep through state propaganda.
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As a result, the pace and nature of complaints against the Department of Defense have changed. Whereas previously the main topics of complaint were accommodation for soldiers and their families, pensions, military funerals or military service under the contract, now the Russians have begun to complain about the work of military administrations, which they say, as in Soviet times, recognize all conscripts capable of military service. further on the search for captured and missing soldiers, the service of conscripts and soldiers with a contract, salaries, armaments, and war in general.
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Relatives first turned to the troops and commanders, but these questions did not work. As an example, the server cites the case of the sunken cruiser Moscow, where the command concealed and apparently still hides data about the victims. When the Department of Defense stopped answering soldiers’ relatives, they began seeking help from the president more often.
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Writing to Putin is almost useless
“People who write to the president are usually loyal but apolitical,” the Moscow Times quoted political consultant and former author of Putin’s speeches as Abbas Galljamov.
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“They are ordinary people … with a traditional mentality and faith in a kind patriarchal tsar,” he adds, adding that there will be more families who are worried about their sons, but they do not believe that the letter to the president could change anything.
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The data rather confirm such a judgment. According to an analysis by journalists, complaints to the Ministry of Defense against Putin’s office will hardly yield the desired result: since 2016, the office has responded satisfactorily to only three percent of these complaints.
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Political scientist Preobrazhensky assumes that the president’s subordinates are afraid to report how huge the number of complaints is. “He is the man who is personally responsible for the war, he was the one who started it. Complaining to him alone makes no sense, ”he thinks.
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