Where Are The Russian Mothers

[gab13by13]

Are they so brainwashed that they can't see through what Putin is doing?

I understand the fog of war, but I am seeing over 1,000 Russian casualties per day in Ukraine from numerous sources. Let's just take half that number and say Russia is losing 500 casualties per day, those are insane numbers to just hide under the carpet in the name of patriotism. I read an article that said that Russia can't keep up with the supply of body bags.

I read that Ukraine's recent incursion into Kursk, Russia took as much territory as it took Russia to take in 1 year.

Now I am reading that Ukraine may start arming F-16's with air to surface Cruise missiles that have a 230 mile range.

Where are the Russian mothers?

[True Dough]

1. Maybe they don't want to speak up

for fear that Putin will conscript them next.

[marble falls]

2. The Gulag.

[hatrack]

3. Did you mean Buryat mothers, Evenki mothers, Mingrel mothers, Chechen mothers?

One of the facets of Vlad's Homicidal Face-Plant that hasn't gotten all that much attention is that he's been very careful to (A) avoid a true general mobilization and (B) avoid pushing ethnic Great Russians (or at least too many of them) into the meatgrinder.

As long as ethnic Russians in and around Moscow and St. Petersburg don't have to feel too distressed about who's getting killed and maimed at the rate of about a battalion every day - that is, as long as the daily casualty battalion is made up of mostly ethnic minorities from those "other" parts of the country - he believes he can keep a lid on the home front.

[MaryMagdaline]

7. Exactly! Was going to post something to this effect but

you have summarized it beautifully.
This is not the white man’s war. Hundreds of thousands of White Russians have left the country, living in Turkey and Argentina, etc. This war, like most wars, has been left to the Poors.

[Igel]

12. A lot of poor Russians or rural Russians are also conscripted or urged

to be contract soldiers.

As for capitalizing "white," a White Russian is a drink, a derogatory older term for a Belorusian, or a Russian who fought against the Red Army in the Civil War.

Many White Russians did leave Russia, but most of them settled in Europe, some in Mexico, not so many in poorer and just as war-torn countries like Turkey. (Let's go with "ethnic Russians" since we've let nationality coopt ethnic terms in a way that confuses things too often, in many ways intentionally.)

[MaryMagdaline]

14. Yes. I cringed when I re-read my comments.

[Bucky]

4. If they speak out, they need to avoid windows

[dlk]

5. Brainwashed or afraid of retaliation?

The penalties for speaking out are harsh and cruel. Who will care for their children after they’re sent to prison?

[DFW]

8. Afraid of retaliation

The FSB has a huge bank of phone call monitors, particularly for calls with the West.

One of our German friends has a Russian girlfriend. She speaks only Russian, so she never moved to Germany. He used to travel there frequently. Now they can only talk on the phone, and he has to choose every word carefully. If she is picked up, there is no way he could help her. Her son already moved to Beograd years ago to be away from Putin’s clutches.

[dlk]

10. Of course

Mothers, including Russian mothers put their childrens’ safety first. It’s unreasonable to fault them for that. No one can speak freely in Russia, ever, without dire consequences.

[EllieBC]

13. I always find it funny

that people from the safety of North America make these strange demands of people in other parts of the world to martyr themselves.

[DFW]

15. It is difficult to explain the feeling of constant fear without first-hand knowledge

I visited East Berlin while it existed. The streets full of goose-stepping soldiers—the socialists kept the Nazi uniforms, only changed the helmets—,people terrified of congregating in public, since tables at cafés and restaurants were forbidden to have more than four people seated at them. I felt as if I were on a different planet and not a mere kilometer from where I had been that morning.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. There was a strong resistance led by mothers in the late 80s-early 90s, but it was undermined about 10 years ago

when the state specifically labeled these NGOs as foreign agents. There's also been a massive propaganda push that seeds just enough uncertainty about the righteousness of the war, and the payments soldiers usually get is enough to make a big difference in a lot of families' lives. Finally, the suppression of collective action as a whole, no matter the cause, is extensive and swift. It is really, really hard to organize and take action in the best of circumstances, but in Russia, now...whew.

[dlk]

11. With technology advances in the last 10 years

Russian surveillance abilities have greatly improved.