While the mobilization of its reservists continues, and in the midst of the express referendums after which Russia intends to annex the Ukrainian territories under its control, Moscow decided this Saturday to replace the Deputy Defense Minister in charge of army logistics, the weakest link in the intervention in Ukraine. The authorities tried to disrupt the second day of protests against the mobilization, which left more than 740 detainees throughout the country. And the queues to leave the country show again that many Russians reject the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Defense Ministry said it has transferred General Dimitri Bulgakov, in charge of logistical support, "to another position." Russian logistics have failed several times since the beginning of the military campaign. This September, in addition, Ukraine managed to break its provisioning routes in the Kharkiv region during a counteroffensive that forced the Russian army to retreat and retreat to Donetsk. The Russian government dressed this step back as a "regroupment", but that did not free it from criticism from circles close to power and from the most radical nationalist voices among Russian propagandists.
In charge of the logistics of the Russian troops will be Colonel-General Mikhail Misintsev. According to the Ukrainian government, Misintsev has already taken a very active part in the conflict, since he led the siege of Mariupol, for which he has been nicknamed the "butcher of Mariupol". Russian troops took that city, on the Azov Sea coast, in May.
Putin's call for partial mobilization, which affects 300,000 reservists, has sparked protests in Russia against the "special military operation", as the Russian authorities call the armed conflict.
Russians opposed to the Kremlin's decisions demonstrated this Saturday in dozens of cities for the second time this week. The first was on Wednesday. The police were on notice and tried to stop the protest before it started.
In the morning, the St. Petersburg police searched the apartments of several activists, including two from the peace organization Vesná (Spring, in Russian), which called the protests.
Riot forces were deployed hours before the protest began in the center of the cities. The activist Marina Salomátova, from the Transbaikal Civil Solidarity movement, was arrested in Chitá (Siberia) for carrying a piece of paper that read “We are not meat”.
In Moscow, some detainees did not even have time to unfurl their banners “Against the war!” or “Life for our children!” A young protester was arrested on Chistie Prudí boulevard with a basket in which she carried a sign. Others did manage to do it. "Do you want to be like me?", She read herself in the one that showed a girl in a wheelchair. According to the NGO OVD-Info, at least 744 people were arrested in 32 cities, half in Moscow. On the first day of protests, on Wednesday, 1,400 people were arrested.
The call-up is also causing many Russian men to try to leave the country. This Saturday the authorities of North Ossetia, a Russian region bordering Georgia, recognized a “significant” arrival of cars, “around 2,300”, to cross into that Caucasus country. In previous days there were also long queues to Finland, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
But those who receive the enlistment summons will not be able to flee, at the risk of going to prison. Putin signed the amendments that the Duma approved this week and that increase prison sentences up to 10 years in prison for soldiers who desert or refuse to fight during a period of mobilization like the current one.
He also signed a law that makes it easier for foreigners who join the army for at least one year to receive Russian nationality. The measure appears to be a call to labor immigrants from Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have already warned their citizens that it is illegal to fight in other countries' wars, so they can be sent to trial in their home countries.
