ISW: Mobilization backfires on Vladimir Putin

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military forces for the war in Ukraine. The mobilization was met with protests, and hundreds of thousands of young Russians fled the country.

The mobilization was also criticized for affecting the elderly, the sick, the frail, and people without special military experience.

to me The New York Times If some of the recruits that Putin now sent to war had less than 10 days of training.

They give them the basics at best and nothing at the worst and throw them into battle, which suggests that these guys are literally cannon fodder, William Alberkey, an expert on the Russian armed forces, tells the newspaper.

Johan Norberg, a Russian analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, believes this mobilization has created an ultimatum that could backfire on Russia.

– The Russians have to make a decision — build a unit properly over time and then risk losing the war, or use it now because the war requires it, but the unit will be ready halfway, Johan Norberg, a Russian analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, tells The Times. .

But last week, Putin was able to say that the mobilization ended soon, and that he had no plans to intensify it again.

ISW: Mass shootings due to Kremlin policy

The mobilization has also sparked several debates in Russia in recent days.

In a report published Tuesday, the US think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote that the mobilization led to an increase in racist and xenophobic rhetoric in Russia, he wrote. NEWSWEEK.

This is because the Kremlin primarily mobilizes the poor and minorities for war, shunning rich and ethnic Russian citizens, according to the Institute for International Studies.

Eleven people were killed and 15 wounded on Saturday when two Russian Tajik soldiers opened fire on a military training ground in Bolgorod near the Ukrainian border.

According to the independent Russian online newspaper Medusa, the religious conflict was said to have led to the mass shootings. On the other hand, ISW believes that the Kremlin’s policy of “continuing the policy of using poor and minority communities to bear the brunt” has played a role.

The ISW report claims that “Putin’s uneven implementation of partial mobilization is causing social disruption” and helps those who seek to “further marginalize ethnic minority communities”.

Demands reform of the new immigration system

After the ethnicity of the shooters became known, according to ISW, discussions arose about reforming the immigration system and increasing “poisonous xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants from Central Asia and other peripheral social groups”.

Among those who talk about reforming the new immigration system is Sergei Mironov, head of the upper house of the Russian parliament and leader of the political party “Fair Russia”.

Mironov called for a temporary postponement of all applications for Russian citizenship from Tajikistan.

The consequences could be more tragic. This is another powerful reason to radically reconsider the state’s approach to immigration, as Mironov wrote in A Telegram Posts.

ISW believes that Mironov’s calls are evidence of the role mobilization has played in spurring racial, racial and xenophobic divisions in Russian society.