Russian mobilized recruits won’t be discharged until the war is over.
“No rotation is planned,”
said MP Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Defense Committee.
His logic is straightforward.
It’s been over a year since the mobilization drive started.
Homefront residents are concerned about an upcoming new wave
that’ll see them relieve those currently on the ground.
The officials rush to allay their worries, “Don’t worry!
We won’t get to you until we’ve exhausted the current boots on the ground.”
However, these statements don’t necessarily mean
that’s the exact game plan the authorities are hatching.
Dmitry Peskov, the president’s spokesman, had plainly stated
there would be no mobilization eight days before it commenced.
The utterances of both Putin and his officials aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
The mobilization decree is still in force. It has never been rescinded,
and there’s no need for a new one to flag the new wave open.
With that being said, the official rhetoric claims
that there’s no need for you to fret as long as someone else is dying.
They aren’t coming back. We’re done with them.
This rhetoric follows from the past quarter of a century Putin has been at the helm.
This policy has been targeted at mowing down civil society.
They’ve been selling the idea
whereby if someone has been reeled in and mauled, rejoice that wasn’t you.
Just like in prison, you are discouraged from having someone else’s back in Putin’s Russia.
But there’s a special class of active service members
whose tour of duty lasted six months only up until recently.
These are volunteers from the Russian prison system.
A case in point.
In 2018, one of such inmates from northern Russia killed and mutilated
a 27-year-old girl, only to put her through the meatgrinder afterward.
He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars.
However, the murderer is now out walking the streets and has a honorable status as a combat vet.
He may even be offered to share his experiences with schoolkids as part of the Important Conversations course.
Mind, he wasn’t paroled for model behavior in his correctional facility.
Worse still, he now has combat experience and psychological trauma
that often make even model citizens turn to crime.
To say nothing of those who have already killed and ended up a free man
not because they learned better ways
but because they were model killers on the battlefield.
Now, armed with a collection of medals and welfare benefits,
such individuals claim respect from the public.
Some of these “vets” get back to their murderous ways soon after they’ve been pardoned.
These stories aren’t spun by enemy propaganda but recounted by Russia’s mainstream media.
PSEUDO-PROMETHEUS
Over the past 18 months, the goals and objectives of the so-called
“special military operation” have seen multiple amendments.
If you tune in to a propagandist show these days, neither the hosts
nor the guests are using the word “Ukrainians.”
Instead, they opt for various slurs and derogatory epithets that I balk at even mentioning.
It used to be different, too.
Initially, the war was spun as a progressive phenomenon.
Vladimir Putin was portrayed as Prometheus who was supposed to illuminate
misguided Ukrainians with the light of civilization.
That was the prevailing narrative early into the war.
But once the random and sporadic strikes of Russian missiles and artillery
at residential buildings devolved into deliberate extermination of entire neighborhoods
and even towns and cities in Ukraine, the propaganda narrative shifted.
They now considered hating on Ukraine, Ukrainians,
and even their self-identity as “the right thing to do.”
Granted, Putin may occasionally call them a “brotherly nation.”
But Putin’s entire propaganda machine works toward
dehumanizing Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian public.
All of a sudden, they now no longer needed help
in their struggle “against the Nazis and drug addicts”
instead, they had to be cut off from civilization altogether
and left without central heating, electricity, and water supply.
However, to reiterate, early on, the Russian military was described as the progressive folks
who were supposed to illuminate Ukraine as opposed to blacking it out.
The big brother should’ve purportedly taken care of the little one, and suchlike.
What kind of progress can Putin extend to Ukraine?
What can he share with his neighbors, seeing as Russia’s system
is destroying its own basic government institutions?
It’s turned into a lawn mower trimming whatever could blossom in the Russian society.
NON-COMMERCIAL
Here’s a question for you: How often do you think of the Roman Empire?
A real buff could easily furnish a justification for the military campaigns
mandated by Roman emperors in their territorial conquest.
The conquered lands got equipped with roads, bridges, and plumbing systems.
Roman law was introduced. Notably, the Roman legislative system
along with much of the empire’s architecture survived the empire itself.
As for the Russian army, what it does is raze Ukrainian architecture. That’s self-evident, right?
But the question is: What is the kind of law that Putin was going to offer to Ukraine?
Let’s recap the highlights of Russia’s domestic life pre-Feb. 24, 2022.
Yuri Dud released his documentary titled Why They Torture in Russia.
Even though the war went on to eclipse those stories,
the movie sent a chill through the Russian public.
Millions were disgusted by what they’d seen.
A month prior to the war, Kadyrovites descended upon Nizhny Novgorod
and brazenly abducted the wife of a retired federal justice.
Importantly, “a retired federal justice” is a legal status in Russia.
Among other things, they’re guaranteed personal protection and security.
The thugs broke into this guy’s home and kidnapped his wife.
Back then, some were left wondering if we did have a state system at all.
Will the Constitution, however redacted and butchered, be ever enforced in Russia?
Are we indeed Russia or maybe Northern Somalia?
In Jan. 2022, it felt like we as a nation had
hit an all-time low in terms of law enforcement.
But suddenly, it turned out it could even get lower.
The war started by Putin blew the door leading to hell wide open.
LAWLESSNESS ENSHRINED
Over the past 18 months, the Russian parliament has churned out
new laws that blatantly defy the Russian Constitution.
Even the recently redacted version that was,
in turn, promulgated in breach of the law.
Hence the conundrum: the more laws the parliament bats out,
the less lawful the state gets.
It’d be remiss of us to assert that the Russian law is tightening up.
On the contrary, it’s being dismantled.
The pocket MPs aren’t out to ensure stricter enforcement.
They’re out to eliminate it and let Putin run wild.
In a recent video, we commented on Kadyrov’s 15-year-old son
beating up the detained Nikita Zhuravel.
We quoted Putin in that video.
Let’s listen to him say this again and then examine it from a different angle.
The same as we tasked Chechnya’s Investigative Committee
with investigating the crime involving the public burning of the Quran.
As the Justice Minister said, they’ll be serving jail time
in a Russian region with a predominantly Muslim population.
Back then, Nikita Zhuravel was—and still is—a suspect under arrest.
He hasn’t been convicted yet. They’re only probing into the evidence in this case.
What’s the implication here? He may face a court hearing or he may not.
If he’s tried, he may be either convicted or acquitted.
Even if he ends up convicted, he may still avoid jail time.
He may be fined or ordered penal labor instead.
His charges may well carry penal labor as punishment.
Moreover, even if he’s jailed, he may submit an appeal and challenge the court ruling.
Pursuant to the Russian law and established proceedings, there’s a great distance
to be covered between an arrest and a potential prison sentence.
At every stage, Nikita Zhuravel could have a shot at freedom.
But on Jun. 13, the Russian president, who has a degree in law,
publicly stated that Zhuravel would serve jail time
in a region with a predominantly Muslim population.
Seventeen months into the war, the times of peace may seem like a bygone era.
But it’s important to remember that Putin had yet to say something like that.
Both as a president and as a lawyer by training, he played by the basic rules.
Asked about any buzzed-about court case, Putin would always go,
“Let the law enforcement agencies do their job. I won’t be using leverage to sway them.”
Even when everybody knew the game would likely be rigged,
the president allowed for a possibility of defendants being released from the courtroom.
This created at least a smokescreen of justice.
This time, Putin announced the verdict with trial dates still ahead.
As for Chechnya, we said that instead of it being incorporated into Russia’s legal system,
a reverse mechanism was launched under Putin.
The Kadyrov method of treating people began metastasizing all over Russia.
A year ago, four more regions were annexed to Russia:
Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk.
It was not recognized anywhere in the world,
and no region is entirely controlled by the Russian army.
But that’s beside the point.
While Putin declared these provinces as constituent parts of Russia, a year on,
they still enforce the norms and punishment that violate the Russian law.
Residents of the Zaporizhzhia Region have long been kicked out of their homes
and made to walk toward the frontline for “discrediting the Russian authorities.”
They weren’t allowed to grab their personal items or even I.D.’s. Sometimes their arms were tied.
Russia doesn’t have this enshrined as a mode of punishment,
but the Russian-controlled portion of the Zaporizhzhia Region does.
The internet is awash with videos where the locals are told,
“You have discredit the Russian authorities and are sentenced to being displaced.”
When the victims’ understandably ask how they can challenge the “verdict,”
they are ordered to “jog away.”
It’s even unclear who is behind such sentences.
Russian courts aren’t authorized to select the mode of punishment
that’s not enshrined in Russia’s official legal codes.
Another example would be this. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions
have kept sending students and retires to fight
even after these provinces were annexed to Russia.
No amount of complaints videotaped by their mothers
and wives citing the Russian law would help.
These regions apparently abide by a different code.
In the occupied regions, those who left for the Ukrainian-controlled parts
wind up robbed of their homes and property.
They are stripped of their right to property in absentia,
something that contravenes the Russian law.
Even the current legislation doesn’t allow you to strip
an individual of this right just because they evacuated.
Those who stayed in the occupied parts of the regions in the hopes
of getting new residential property instead of their razed homes
have also been hit with a slew of illegal clauses designed to keep them homeless.
A Russian-speaking Ukrainian blogger named Denis Kazanskyy
uploads a lot of videos dealing with this to his channel.
One instance stood out to me.
A Mariupol family of seven
had lost their home during the invasion.
The occupation authorities refused to provide them with a condo in a new block
based on the fact they owned an 8 sq. m. shed.
We first submitted an application for a new residence
in exchange for the one that burned down.
It was accepted. Two months later, we were slapped with a refusal.
The reason was that we owned an 8 sq. m.
shed a half-hour ride away from the city.
It’s a shame. We’re a family of seven. And this property is 8 sq. m.
Are we supposed to sleep upright in this mudbrick hut?
Putin declared Mariupol as a Russian city.
But is there a Russian law that says 8 sq. m. property is okay for a family of seven?
Don’t make a mistake of thinking it’s just because the “new provinces”
are far away from Russia’s officially recognized borders.
Chechnya, a full-fledged part of Russia, was once viewed as a faraway region.
Even when journalist Natalya Estemirova was abducted and killed in Chechnya’s capital city
and journalist Elena Milashina and defense attorney Alexander Nemov were brutalized,
many imputed those atrocities to the Chechen way of doing things.
But rogue lawlessness can’t be limited to a reservation,
much less when federal authorities can’t be bothered to limit it.
If these authorities are testing cutthroat practices in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions,
chances are, they can be upscaled to the rest of Russia.
Putin himself said they’re part of Russia alongside the other regions.
By the way, the Donetsk authorities recently introduced wartime censorship.
This may have come as a response to multiple complaints filed by
the draftees’ families and people left homeless.
Censorship is a perfect way to fix the issue.
BETWEEN A ROCK & A HARD PLACE
People affected by criminals are supposed
to lodge complaints with the government.
In our case, though, the government is instrumental in, first,
spawning these grisly militarized crimes by shipping the convicts
and defendants to the battlefield, only to later reintegrate them into our society.
Second, under Putin, the government system
has transmogrified into a sprawling crime syndicate.
On Putin’s watch, a decent person is stranded between a rock and a hard place.
There’s no effective law and no protection.
You can end up battered or even killed by either side.
True, millions of Russians are still going
outside without having to look over their shoulder.
Mordor hasn’t yet sunk its teeth into their lives.
Armed gangs haven’t yet infested Russian cities.
Authorities aren’t ousting citizens from their homes for berating Putin.
But that’s a possibility.
This is the current path our country is following.
It can be changed by convincing everyone around you that Russia
doesn’t need Putin and that he isn’t building a powerful state.
Far from it, he’s destroying and replacing it with a crime syndicate that’s,
in turning, spawning all sorts of unsyndicated crimes.
Under Putin, Russians can’t be safe. It’s important to spread this message.
It’ll be even more important once the propaganda
starts selling Putin’s six-year extension.
We must do our utmost to deter Russians from buying into it
and have them say an emphatic “no.”
See you tomorrow!