salaries up to $ 6,000

The subterfuge with which Vladimir is called voluntary mobilization Putin hopes to avoid general (or partial) mobilization to continue the war in Ukraine. The order from the Kremlin concerns federal subjects, namely the 85 regions of the Russian Federation including Sevastopol and Crimea. The goal is to train, with regional budgets and social security funds, 85 battalions of at least 400 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 50 (60 for some specialties), through six-month contracts at a salary ranging from 220 thousand to 350 thousand rubles per month, equal to 3750-6 thousand dollars. Offer strengthened in some areas by an entrance bonus of 200 thousand rubles (3400 euros), for a total investment between 128 and 200 million dollars per month just for wages (up to one billion and 200 million in a semester). So much is Putin’s determination not to want large-scale mobilization that in the past generated popular protest, the fearful reaction of the conscript families, which put an end to the unfortunate enterprises in Afghanistan and in the first Chechen conflict.

THE OPERATION

Putin also wants to keep the point on the minimal definition of the invasion of Ukraine: public opinion would not understand a general mobilization only for what the Tsar insists on calling a special military operation. To reveal what is happening is the war correspondent and blogger Laksim Fomin. The Russian media, moreover, have already confirmed the creation of several battalions. It is possible that some regions may not be able to reach 400 components to form a unit, on the other hand Tatarstan and Chechnya already have 2 and 4 battalions ready respectively. The training will last a month, fresh forces to replace the exhausted units on the Donbass front between the end of August and the beginning of September. “The Russian generals are in dire need of soldiers,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning and former head of the New York Times Moscow office, Neil MacFarquhar, in a report on the invisible mobilization. “The Kremlin relies on a combination of impoverished ethnic minorities, Ukrainians from separatist territories, mercenaries and militarized units of the National Guard.” All to flesh out the front decimated by fatigue and losses (25 thousand dead soldiers and tens of thousands wounded on an invasion force of 300 thousand, according to British Intelligence).

Putin, here’s Patrushev: the former KGB spy is the man behind the tsar’s crazy strategy. “He could replace him in the Kremlin”

Regional recruiting offices scattered across the vast Russian territory post thousands of ads online on job sites and Head Hunter sites asking for military engineers, people capable of throwing grenades, even a paratrooper squadron commander. Obviously, recruits and volunteers from less developed regions, such as Dagestan in the Caucasus and Buryatia in Southern Siberia, are enlisting in Putin’s war, which according to a MediaZona statistic counted 225 and 185 dead in June alone, compared to 9 in Moscow and at 30 of St. Petersburg. Fifteen women from Buryatia recently posted a video complaining that their family members have been fighting relentlessly since January.

THE FORMATIONS

The only formations that do not seem to have licensing and replacement problems would be Rosgvardia, the military arm of the Kremlin also in the repression of squares, and the private Wagner contractors of St. Petersburg, also active in Africa and the Middle East. But the pro-Putin Chechen leader Kadyrov takes advantage of the conflict, with his own training center, the Russian University of special forces, which offers contracts from three months to 6 thousand dollars, plus the 53 a day promised by the ministry of Defense of Moscow. It is not surprising then that among the special measures signed yesterday by Putin there is “the provisional commitment of mobilization capacities and sites”. A blank check, covered by federal reserves, for the ministries of defense and emergencies, the national guard and the secret services. Then, the obligation for private companies to accept contracts with the state for the supply of “goods, works and services in the context of operations against terrorism conducted by armed forces, militias or other units beyond the Russian borders”. And again, the offense of high treason has been extended to deserters abroad, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while those who carry out actions against national security risk 7 years. Finally, a new list has been drawn up at the Ministry of Justice of persons or groups who receive funds or are affiliated with foreign agents.