to stay. “It’s important because I’m 
against the murder of people in a 
neighbouring country and that my 
people become murderers.”
More worryingly for the Kremlin, 
observers say, is the unrest that is 
 bubbling up away from the big cities 
and in the regions, traditionally 
strongholds of the regime. 
 Perhaps most strikingly, Chechnya, 
by far the country’s most repressive 
region, saw its fi rst protest since the 
ruthless strongman Ramzan Kadyrov 
came to power 15 years ago, when a 
few dozen women gathered outside 
a mosque to voice anger about their 
sons being drafted.
 Many Russians have already voted 
with their feet, with the mobilisation 
leading to a surge in the number of men of military age leaving the country .
 Sam Greene, a professor of Russian 
politics at King’s College London and 
co-author of Putin v the People, said 
that with the call for mobilisation, 
Putin has “made the war a lot more 
real for people than it was before”.
“For many who were enthusiastic 
about the invasion, staying silent was 
still the preferred option, given the 
risks protesters face. But now, with 
the real possibility of being sent to the front, that calculus has changed.”
In his nightly speech last Thursday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr 
Zelenskiy decided to address Russians directly in their native language. 
“Fifty-fi ve thousand Russian soldiers died in this war in six months,”he said.
 “Tens of thousands are wounded and maimed. Want more? No? Then protest. Fight back. Run away. Or  surrender to Ukrainian captivity. These are the options for you to survive.