Rolikova’s best friend was killed in Ukraine in February, leaving the friend with two young children. It is in the freshly turned soil of cemeteries where young men are laid to rest.
It is etched in the fearful faces of young recruits lining up at the airport for flights to Moscow, and from there overland to Rostov-on-Don and into Ukraine. Putin showers on remotest Russia only brings the war into sharper relief. “The contracts being offered volunteers are crazy by our standards.”īut all of the money that Mr. “Money is the main reason people go to fight,” Ms. That is done, in part, by paying recruits about $2,500 a month, a huge sum in a region where a monthly salary of $500 is more typical.
Still, as far as possible, the war must be invisible, banished to places like Ulan-Ude, near Lake Baikal, not far from the Mongolian border. He has always used war - in Chechnya, in Georgia and in Ukraine - to unite Russians in the simplistic myths of nationalism and to usher them to the simplistic conclusion that his increasingly repressive rule is so essential that it must be eternal. He learned long ago, indeed from the outset of his rule in 2000, that, as the author Masha Gessen has put it, “wars were almost as good as crackdowns because they discredited anyone who wanted to complicate things.” Putin’s hold on power is still firm as fighting intensifies in southern and eastern Ukraine. Putin, 70, did not blink, he certainly flinched.
Wagner’s role in avoiding recourse to an unpopular draft, by recruiting many thousands of criminals to bear the brunt of much heavy fighting in Ukraine, has been crucial. Prigozhin was too risky in the short term for other reasons, too. “Putin clearly did not want to give an order to fire he was unsure would be implemented.” “That Prigozhin rebelled was symptomatic of many social problems, but the way he advanced toward Moscow unhindered also demonstrated nervousness about whether all army units would fight,” said Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
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