The movement of relatives demanding the return of the men mobilized for the invasion of Ukraine is growing in Russia. Moscow treats the issue vaguely. And not all the activists are necessarily against the war.
(DW) In front of the Kremlin walls in Moscow, there are constant protests in which women lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, demanding the return of their husbands from the front. Similar demonstrations are also taking place in other parts of Russia.
In this way, the movement of the relatives of citizens sent to war against Ukraine is attracting more and more public attention. Opposition activists have already declared their willingness to support it, convinced that the mobilization of soldiers is the Kremlin’s Achilles heel.
However, opinions on the two-year-old war of aggression differ, both among politicians and among the families of the mobilized soldiers. Some condemn it and demand the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine, while others simply demand a rotation of the contingent and are in favor of the military campaign continuing.
Not all are against the war
“Let’s delete all the messages calling for demonstrations!” read one in 2023, in the group of the wives of mobilized Russian soldiers on the Telegram platform. The intention is to curb the organization of protests. On her channel Vernyom Rebyat (Bring the boys home), well-known activist Olga Katz, whose brother was killed on the Ukrainian front, justifies the measure, considering demonstrations a complex issue.
“Of course, the easiest thing is to show your discontent by going to Red Square and stomping your foot in anger,” she admits. However, such actions could attract agents provocateurs, which would mean the end of “dialog with the authorities”. She herself sees the current war as a confrontation with the West, which would try to dismember Russia – something it must prevent.
Nevertheless, on November 7, five women from the Put’ Domoy (Way Home) movement called a first vigil in central Moscow. They demanded the return of their families, especially since there is no deadline for mobilization at the front.
Police arrest protesters
Photos of the demonstration quickly spread on social media. The police didn’t dare make any arrests, but later some of the participants were visited by the authorities and urged to suspend the public protest. However, the effect was the opposite: the vigils moved to the Kremlin walls, where the wives now lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The first protests were previously debates between supporters and opponents of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At first there were only eight participants, but after two months there were already 50. Similar initiatives are also taking place in other parts of the country.
In one of them, in Yekaterinburg on January 10, five demonstrators were arrested at the memorial to the victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya for allegedly violating the regulations on public events. One man was sentenced to eight days in prison for “organizing a rally against the special military operation” – as Vladimir Putin’s government calls its invasion of the neighboring country.
The women who wrote to various Russian authorities demanding the return of their husbands were told to wait for a decree from the president to end the mobilization. In the meantime, the General Staff of the Russian Federation has declared that a delimitation is not possible, as it would require “a fundamental change in the military training system”. This justification made many decide to take to the streets once and for all.
Putin: “We will all leave this world one day”
The soldiers’ wives are currently trying to get the backing of national politicians. With the presidential campaign underway, they initially received support from oppositionists Ekaterina Dontsova and Boris Nadezhdin.
However, when the government barred their candidacy, Maria Andreyeva, one of the leaders of the Put’ Domoy movement, and other women turned to both the team of presidential candidate Vladislav Davankov, from the liberal New People’s Party, and Putin, who is running for the head of state for the fifth time, for help. There was no response from either of them.
In the two years since the invasion of Ukraine, the president has hardly ever referred to the soldiers on the frontlines. In a rare meeting with relatives of the fallen in November 2022, he simply commented, cynically: “We will all leave this world one day.”
While the national media is trying to convince the population that the mobilization is going smoothly, opposition politicians are denouncing the problems. Among them are the liberal Maxim Katz, who for two years has been listed as a “foreign agent” and lives in Tel Aviv; the team of activist Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on February 15; and oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in London.
Maxim Katz doesn’t believe that the authorities will make concessions to the activist wives, because then other relatives would also demand the return of their own. However, in his opinion, every day the Russian people understand more and more that this is a matter of “life and death”: “The authorities don’t see any easy solution for themselves, so they react vaguely to the protest.”
He advises soldiers’ wives to subscribe to Put’ Domoy’s Telegram channel, which has over 70,000 followers. This is despite the fact that some members of the movement are openly in favour of Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine: they just want the mobilization to be for a limited time.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***