CNN
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Schoolchildren raise money to buy socks, mothers buy winter clothes and sleeping bags, and community groups collect donations for protective clothing.
Russian citizens are crowdfunding to equip soldiers sent to ukraine As winter approaches the battlefield. The military is complaining that it lacks basic equipment, and the message is reaching President Vladimir Putin.
Putin and other Russian officials say initial problems with the supply of newly mobilized troops sent to Ukraine have been partially overcome by restructuring supply chains. has also stepped up pressure on those who dare to complain, increasingly framing the invasion of Ukraine as a patriotic and almost existential cause.
On Wednesday, Putin said the mobilization efforts needed to be modernized after problems were revealed in the autumn subdraft.
“The partial mobilizations that have taken place have revealed certain problems, which are well known to everyone and should be addressed promptly.”
Putin himself held a well-arranged meeting with soldiers’ families in the Kremlin at the end of November, two months after the much-criticized partial mobilization. However, participants were carefully selected with a supportive tone.
Local campaigns to raise funds for soldiers are underway in both Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. Called “Together is Warmer,” he raised three million rubles (about $45,000) to provide basic equipment and clothing to Russian soldiers.
A Telegram channel last month detailed how a soldier with the call sign Kaluga, who belongs to the DPR’s 6th Motorized Rifle Regiment, called for help for his 74-man squad.
“When we were already collecting orders and preparing to leave, people lined up in our warehouses with boxes and packages with the words: “This is for Kaluga, the sixth motorized rifle!” came. Medicine, clothes, boots and even his two wheelchairs that the men took to the local hospital. ”
This channel listed what else I bought.
The telegram channel of the Russian Republic of Buryatia, offering more than its share of recruits, said: ”
In the Chuvashia region, where some of the mobilized protesters held protests in the fall, the Telegram channel said families were entering the arsenal to buy debt. “All they got from the officials there were farewell words and three bags of potatoes,” one person said.
Similarly, a Telegram channel in Altai, Southern Siberia, posted: Volunteers from the Altai Territory have announced that Felt will send his collection of boots, woolen sweaters, mittens and scarves to the front. ”
In Tambov, central Russia, 8th grade students also raised money to buy military socks.
Many appeals focus on preventing hypothermia in soldiers fighting in sub-zero temperatures without proper clothing or shelter. Some try.
One Telegram channel posted, “We continue to collect bulletproof vests,” and said it had tested a vest made in China. “I want to buy up to 50 sets. I need to raise 1 million rubles.”
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Fellow Maxim Samorkov wrote: in foreign policy magazine Last week: “Ordinary Russians are expected to help their friends and relatives who have the misfortune of being drafted. In fact, other than making up for the lack of national provisions out of their own pockets just to protect their loved ones.” have little choice.”
Recruit equipment has become a major challenge for Russian supply chains.
Earlier this month, Vesti FM’s Russian reporter Vera Desyatova asked Putin about the shortage at a press conference.
“The flow of messages from frontline combatants has not stopped, with appeals coming to the military and volunteers for uniforms, medicines and other kits,” she said.
“Who do you trust?” she asked. “Are there reports from the Department of Defense and fighters on the front lines?”
“You can’t trust anyone, you can only trust me,” Putin replied, adding: I’m sure it’s getting smaller and smaller. ”
This may be because the Kremlin overhauled its procurement and supply chains to address public criticism.
In October, it established a coordinating council with broad mandates to improve logistics, headed by technocrat Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. According to Mishustin, the council’s job is to identify “major tasks related to arms and equipment supply, budget financing, pricing, supplier selection, contractors, and specialized infrastructure creation.” is.
Mishustin said:
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that frontline forces still need help.
In one recently uploaded video, a Russian soldier surrounded by five comrades said: We went to defend our homeland.
“We don’t have tents, we have nothing,” he added before appealing to Serpukhov, south of Moscow, the unit’s hometown.
Another group of recently mobilized men from Tomsk, Siberia, complained in a video uploaded to YouTube that they had been reclassified as “stormtroopers” instead of territorial defense. “We never had a machine gun in our hands.
The Kremlin began suggesting that complaints by families and soldiers were unpatriotic.
End of November, Putin met the soldier’s mother At his residence on the outskirts of Moscow, he said the exchange had been carefully vetted. A mother proudly recounted the death of her son on her front line.
At one point Putin said: He is happy to hear that the situation of supplies and food has improved. ’” He also talked about providing more drones on the front lines.
Russian leaders focused on the heroism and nobility of the front-line soldiers. Dying in the trenches was better than dying in vodka, Putin told the women. “Soldiers who made such sacrifices did not die in vain,” he said.
Putin also talked about forming a group to represent soldiers’ families. But one grassroots group, the Mothers and Wives Council, was not openly invited to the meeting.
Its leader, Olga Tsukanova, said, “Attending mothers ask pre-agreed ‘correct’ questions.
A week after the meeting, Tsuka Nova was stopped by police looking for drugs. Her Svetlana Belova, a journalist who was with her, was fined 3,000 rubles ($45) for spreading her “extremist material.” Her VKontakte social media channel of the group has been suspended.
At the same time, influential and often critical military bloggers (some with hundreds of thousands of followers) have gone very quiet.
Andrei Soldatov, an independent Russian journalist and author of several of Putin’s books on Russia, said that one of the bloggers, Alexander Kots, “improved Putin’s direct access to the general public.” has been appointed to the Human Rights Council of
Another, Semen Pegov, claimed in October that Defense Ministry officials had created a blacklist of people who were “not enthusiastic enough.” The list included him. A month later, after being wounded on the front lines, Pegov received a “Medal of Courage” from President Putin.
Soldatov told CNN: [to control messaging] I’m trying to address the Telegram issue with the goal of capturing voice. ”
On a practical level, the Russian government is making concerted efforts to improve supply lines while stifling dissent. To that end, Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, passed in March, was mobilized against those accused of spreading “fake news” about the military.
But the Kremlin is also reframing the reasons for war, Soldatov said. “The story is becoming apocalyptic. It’s almost a crusade now. A priest recently killed on the battlefield has become a big hero on pro-Russian telegram channels.”
And these crowdfunding efforts can be accepted as part of this “whole of society” effort.
of Foreign Affairs articleSoldatov said that despite the failures and setbacks of the past 10 months, Putin has spread his hands in society and the economy.
“Ordinary Russians don’t want to think too much about the possibility of a second wave of mobilization,” Soldatov told CNN.
“The first is the chief cause of public dissatisfaction, [led to a] complete collapse [the] Kremlin Information Control Online. Now they are trying to find a way to adapt… They may sound less enthusiastic about war, but that doesn’t mean they see a real chance for change. ”
