For about a month now, women’s protests against the war in Russia have been on the rise. The mothers and wives of Russian soldiers called up by Putin (70) for his offensive war in Ukraine demand answers from the Kremlin.
Answers Putin seems to be missing. He had not expected the war to claim so many casualties. Citizens’ resentment grows, especially among desperate parents whose sons die in the war.
To appease worried mothers, the war leader organized a meeting with mothers of Russian soldiers on Friday. In it, he claimed, among other things, that he shared her “pain”. But: the women were not soldier mothers, but loyal civil servants.
They desperately ask Putin for help
The mothers and wives of the real soldiers are currently standing up for their husbands. They protest in the streets and publish critical video messages on Telegram and the Russian network “VKontakte”.
A woman from an area east of Moscow explains that Putin and Defense Minister Shoigu (67) have promised to send only experienced soldiers to the front. “Our soldiers”, on the other hand, landed directly at the front unprepared, unarmed and without food and warm clothing, writes the “FAZ”.
The women are demanding that inexperienced men be withdrawn from the front lines. Another woman says her son is being treated in hospital after shrapnel wounded his head. However, he must return to the front as soon as his condition allows. Despite censorship, the mothers’ appeals spread like wildfire.
“Put that away!”
“They are not professional soldiers,” the Volgorod woman says in the video. “Make that clear. We know that only you can help us,” the woman in the video addressed Putin directly – just days before Putin met the “mothers”.
Olga Tsukanova is the founder of the Russian organization “Council of Mothers and Wives” and has become the face of women’s protests on social media. “Vladimir Vladimirovich, are you a man or not?” she asked in a video. It takes courage to be so critical of the regime in public. Sheer desperation drives wives and mothers to take this step. Because now it is clear what the conditions are at the front. Mobilized are sent to war without equipment and ammunition.
Fear of “uncomfortable questions”
There was no trace of the protesting mothers in Putin’s staged show – although many of them were still in Moscow protesting in front of government buildings. “Do you have the courage to meet us mothers and wives and look us in the eye?” asks Tsukanova. “Not with the women you’ve chosen, the ones you’ve got in your pocket. But real mothers who came from all over the country with their own resources,” she adds. But Tsukanova is sure they were not invited to meet Putin for fear of “uncomfortable questions”.
The women of the “Council of Mothers and Women” had already met in Moscow on Wednesday for a press conference and had invited representatives of the Russian ministries of defense and interior. But none of the delegates showed up.