President Vladimir Putin smiles in a meeting with the head of the state bank VTB on Monday. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP / NTB
A group of Russian women accuses President Vladimir Putin in a manifesto of hiding the truth about the war in Ukraine – and demands to bring their men home.
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Your protest has been posted on Telegram. They risk being prosecuted for extremism, but refuse to give in. They have also tried to protest physically – but have been refused to carry out demonstrations.
– We are determined to get ours back at any cost, says the manifesto.
– Soldiers are used as consumables. But they are people, the women write.
Last Sunday, a group of women managed to hold an anti-mobilization demonstration in Novosibirsk in Siberia, reports Vjorstka.
This image is taken from there:
This mother in Novosibirsk writes that she is “disabled” and asks to “return her son”. Photo: From the Telegram channel Mobilizatsija
– They came to us with a warning about responsibility for extremism. We no longer have the right to think about protest, they will immediately call us enemies of the people, says one of the women to Vazjnyje Istoria.
Similar protests were planned in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but the authorities refused the women to demonstrate, allegedly out of concern for corona infection. Around thirty women still managed to carry out a small protest in Moscow, reports Vazjnyje Istoria.
The women all have husbands, sons, fathers or brothers who are soldiers in Ukraine. They demand that Putin bring them home to Russia.
– We demand that our mobilized men be pulled out of the zone and delivered home to their families.
Russian soldiers take their seats in a military helicopter in Ukraine. The photo has been published by the Russian Ministry of Defence. Photo: AP / NTB
The women are now running a signature campaign on Telegram for their demands. They also touch on next year’s presidential election in Russia and write:
– We do not impose political choices on the attitude to the armed conflict in Ukraine. Everyone has the right to decide for themselves. However, we will support whoever returns our men to us.
The women emphasize that they are not interested in destabilizing the political situation. On the other hand, they remind Putin of his previous statements about the “special operation” in Ukraine:
– We remember that the president promised that reservists would not be called in, and that the special military operation would only be carried out by professionals. And then our loved ones were sent to Ukraine. Many never return.
They also direct criticism directly at Putin:
– It is absurd – the president has said that 2024 is the year of the family, they write.
Excerpt from the women’s manifesto on the Telegram page “The Way Home”. Photo: Facsimile from Telegram
On the group’s Telegram page, which is called “The way home”women are now encouraged to work for their demands to go through, without being stopped.
In the first couple of weeks after Putin ordered full-scale war on February 24, 2022, there were large demonstrations around the vast country. They were beaten down with a heavy hand. Since then, there have been virtually no protests against the war in Russia.
– We are not going to give up, the women write on Telegram.
Vladimir Putin declared in September 2022 a so-called partial mobilization. The goal was to bring in 300,000 men.
British intelligence claimed on Monday that so far in November, Russia has lost an average of 931 soldiers every day, the highest casualty figure since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. This figure includes both dead and injured soldiers.
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Published: 01.12.23 at 03:56
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2023-12-01 02:56:37
#Women #protest #Putin #absurd
