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.