the violent mobilization in Buryatia

Putin’s order to recruit 300,000 new soldiers for deployment in the conflict is being executed in a chaotic manner at the local level. Invalids and parents with several children are also invited. With the disappearance of men, community life in the villages, especially in Siberia, comes to a standstill.

Moscow () – Vladimir Putin’s new call to arms is proving to be very chaotic and brutal in Buryatia. The Russian republic of Mongolia already holds the record for the percentage killed in the Ukraine conflict, compared to the rest of the nearly 100 regions of the Russian Federation. Residents report that summonses are arriving summoning the disabled, parents with several children, and people who have not done military service for health reasons. Official notes even arrive quoting the deceased.

The head of government of Buryatia, Aleksej Tsydenov, admits that there have been excesses in the convocation rules, and assures that those summoned “by mistake” will be able to return home as soon as possible. However, family members interviewed by Sibir.Realii they deny these claims, and affirm that no one returns from the military recruitment centers.

As Natalja Semenova, a typographer from Ulan-Ude, tells us, “at 7 in the morning there was a knock on the door looking for my brother, who died two years ago; I am still trying to recover from the shock.” This is not an isolated case; Apparently there are numerous summonses summoning deceased people. This is confirmed by Alena Kharlamova, whose uncle, also deceased years ago, they tried to summon.

As several lawyers and humanitarian activists point out, the concept of “partial mobilization” does not exist in Russian law, so in theory anyone can be summoned. From Buryatia, many flee to neighboring Mongolia, with no hope of being able to prove their incapacity for military service; several go into hiding in neighboring Tajga, abandoning family, work and other ties. In the town of Turuntaevo, the women gathered in front of the police headquarters, which was about to search almost all the men in the town. The demonstrators demanded that those who had not done their military service be released.

Alena, from Ulan-Ude, says: “My father is 45 years old and is in category B, the category of those unfit for military service. When the bell rang he was very surprised, he started screaming, but they dragged him away threatening to put him in jail. He said he would try to appeal, but the lawyer gave us no hope.” Also arrested were Aleksandr Doržiev, 38, three children from his first marriage and two still-small twins from his second union, who according to regulations should not be cited. They called him “to consult him”, and since he did not show up, they went to look for him at his house at midnight and took him away…

Days earlier, many had been given a pink card to place in their military card (“vennik”), indicating that they were “prepared for recruitment in case of mobilization.” But this was also sent to those who did not have that certificate. The wife of one of the leaders of the republican administration explains that “already this summer they had given my husband the order to organize dozens of volunteers to send them to Ukraine.”

Many videos and messages of solidarity with those summoned are circulating on social networks, especially with those who should not be recruited -and from above they try to force people to delete these messages. Of the more than 4,000 who were called up in the first two days after Putin’s announcement, only 70 managed to return home, as announced by the president of Buryatia, Tsydenov. However, they are only a small part of the disabled, as humanitarian activist Nadežda Nizovkina attests: “My phone is exploding these days, because of the number of desperate calls.” According to her account, they even summoned a blind man who had not yet obtained a disability certificate from an ophthalmologist, and now he is trapped in the barracks.

Total chaos reigns in the concentration points, and the situation seems to be getting worse day by day, not only in Buryatia, but throughout Russia. Many regional leaders allow themselves to be carried away by the desire to “exceed the required limits”, and summon people at random so as not to be accused of laziness, in a crescendo of mass hysteria.

In Buryatia, with the exception of the capital Ulan-Ude, the rest of the population lives in small settlements of a few hundred people, a situation similar to that in most Siberian regions. With the disappearance of the men from the villages, there is a paralysis of communal life.