Yuri Kobzar19:00, 05/04/23

In Russia, the feudal system of recruitment is fully unfolding.

The authorities of St. Petersburg demanded that businesses provide 5 “volunteers” from each enterprise to be sent to the front . The task was set within the framework of the quotas for “volunteers” lowered from above for the region, Fontanka writes .

“The task is to send one and a half times more people to the special operation zone in Ukraine than were called up during partial mobilization. In terms of enterprises, 5 people from each. Leaders who do not provide assistance will have a serious conversation,” the newspaper writes.

The journalists learned this information from the participants of the meeting in the administration of the Vyborgsky district of the city, to which representatives of the largest enterprises of the district were invited. Among the participants was a representative of the city military registration and enlistment office, who said that earlier at a meeting with the governor of St. Petersburg, targets were announced. 

Specific figures were not given. But it was said that in Moscow, within the framework of the same program of “voluntary” mobilization, 100 people sign contracts with the army every day.

New mobilization in Russia – what is known

In late April, it became known that the Kremlin had decided to call up another 400,000 soldiers to the army in order to resume efforts to seize Ukraine. But this time, Putin wants to recruit volunteer contract soldiers because he fears popular discontent if a second wave of forced mobilization begins.

According to human rights activists, the Russian Defense Ministry also launched a large-scale recruitment campaign in Russian prisons . And this time, much more people are being taken out of prisons than the Wagner Group did before.

(C)UNIAN 2023