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The largest number of arrests were reported in Moscow and various personalities from Russian politics expressed their dissatisfaction with the recruitment process, which also triggered massive departures from the country. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense estimated at around 300,000 the number of people who will be summoned to reinforce the troops in Ukraine, where Russian dominance is decreasing.
Since the call for partial mobilization to increase the number of troops in Ukraine became known, the protests against the invasion, called by the Kremlin as a “special operation”, have increased.
The day of discontent this Saturday left as balance more than 740 detainees in some 30 cities. The largest number of arrests occurred in Moscow, the capital, where a police device arrested more than 300, including several citizens who, according to the media, were only passing through the place where the demonstrations were called.
The protest was called by the opposition youth movement ‘Vesná’, in Spanish spring, under the title “Assembly of women in black”. In the order you could read “Women, enough of putting up with it! Enough of being silent! We do not want our men to die because of political games. Come out in black to the squares!”.
This is the second big demonstration against recruitment. The first occurred on Wednesday, the day some 1,300 people were placed under arrest in 38 cities.
Political personalities dissatisfied with the mobilization
Margarita Simonian, editor-in-chief of the Russian state news channel RT, expressed her annoyance at the disorganization shown in the recruitment process, implying that the authorities were calling the wrong men.
“It has been announced that ordinary soldiers can be recruited up to 35 years old. The calls are aimed at people over 40 years old,” he said on his Telegram social network channel.
Later, Simonian was of the opinion that they were “infuriating people, as if on purpose, as if out of spite. As if they had been sent by kyiv,” he stressed.
It was also learned that the head of the Kremlin’s Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeyev, made it known that he had written to Sergey Shoigu, Russian Defense Minister, demanding that these problems be resolved “urgently.”
The official made public his disagreement with the way in which nurses and other health personnel without military experience were enlisted.
According to Fadeyev, some recruiters “turned in their call-up papers at two in the morning, as if they believed that we are all evaders” of the call to serve.
In this context, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its deputy minister and four-star general in charge of logistics, Dmitry Bulgakov, was “transferred to another position”, without providing further information in this regard.
Zelensky warns reservists
In a message published in the Russian language, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the Kremlin does not pay attention to who it will mobilize in the framework of the last call for reserves.
“So – he told those summoned – the key moment has come for you: right now it is being decided whether your life will end or not. It is better not to take a recruitment letter than to die in a foreign land as a war criminal,” he assured. .
The president also affirmed that it is better “to flee from the criminal mobilization than to be crippled and then bear responsibility in court for participating in the aggressive war.”
In his speech, Zelensky also said that his country guaranteed three aspects to the Russian soldiers who surrendered.
“First, you will be treated in a civilized manner, in accordance with all conventions. Second, no one will know the circumstances of your rendition, no one in Russia will know that your rendition was voluntary. And third, if you are afraid to return to Russia and will not want an exchange, we will also find a way to guarantee it,” he said.
With Reuters and EFE
