Moscow has begun a brand new marketing campaign to encourage Russians to enlist within the armed forces and struggle in Ukraine, regardless of the Kremlin having beforehand denied needing extra recruits.
In an try to draw extra volunteers to the entrance, Russian propaganda movies posted on social networks over the previous few days search to attraction to Russian males by the narratives of patriotism, morality and upward social mobility.
Many clips painting the battle as an escape for males from the grim actuality of their every day lives — which consists of ingesting vodka, poverty and helplessness, in response to the movies.
One of many items, posted on Dec. 14, encompasses a younger man who is selecting to struggle as a substitute of partying together with his pals after which surprises everybody by shopping for himself a automotive with the cash he made out of combating on a navy contract.
In a video posted on Dec. 15, the previous girlfriend of a soldier is newly impressed together with his braveness and begs him to get again collectively. In one other video, a middle-aged man leaves the manufacturing facility job that doesn’t pay him sufficient to signal a navy contract and go to the entrance.
One other of the movies exhibits posh-looking Russian males of their 30s loading a automotive. An aged girl asks the place are they going, to which one of many males says, “To Georgia. Eternally.”
When one other girl spills a bag of groceries, as a substitute of serving to, the luxurious males simply get into the automotive and depart, whereas a bunch of youthful Russian males rush to select up the groceries. “The boys have left, the boys stayed,” one of many aged girls says.
In the meantime, reviews and complaints of shortages of provisions and gear within the Russian navy proceed to emerge, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to resolve.
Throughout a gathering with moms of the mobilized in November, Putin insinuated that it’s higher to be killed combating for the nation than to drink oneself to dying on vodka.
Extra background: In late September, Putin introduced a “partial mobilization,” which noticed over 300,000 folks throughout Russia mobilized as its battle in Ukraine did not make progress. The mobilization ended on Nov. 1, in response to the Russian Ministry of Protection. The precise variety of useless Russian troopers in Ukraine stays unknown.
Hundreds of males have fled Russia to keep away from enlisting, and fears of a second mobilization within the new 12 months are mounting.
Putin has tried to reassure the general public that there have been no plans proper now for added mobilization.
