The United States has information that the Russian military is executing soldiers who do not follow orders related to the war with Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday.
For sure, conscription in of itself is criminal but like the USA during Vietnam, poor people,ethnic minorities and developmentally disabled men are disproportionately grabbed off the streets and litteraly forced into service.
The men in Moscow and St Petersburg seem to still have avoided such issiues this deep into the war.
Maybe conscription is the wrong word to use, and more like state sponsored cleansing of " undesirables." Certainly helped the state reduce spending on male prison populations…
Conscription is always a horrible thing… but conscription in Russia is batshit insane. I read Arkady Babchenko’s account of it (he was conscripted into the 1st Chechen War, and essentially a mercenary during the second one) and it’s as bad as you can imagine - recruits in USMC bootcamp don’t know how luxurious their lives are in comparison. It’s a carnival of corruption, extortion and unrestricted abuse - and that’s just the basic training.
After reading that, I was no longer surprised at the Russian military’s failure in Ukraine - I’d say the Russian military is in as bad a state now than they were during the ill-advised invasion of Finland in 1939.
I beg to differ. Finland has conscription. And it is the backbone of Finnish defence. People here willingly perform their mandatory military service.
You can get out of it if you want to*. But most don’t. People trust that they won’t end up in wars of conquest. It’s in our constitution.
Now with NATO there is an ongoing discussion about whether reservists can be sent out on NATO operations. It’ll probably end up with calling for volunteers and then using reservists if there aren’t enough volunteers.
Conscription is a necessity for us. And we’ve done it “right” IMHO.
*) You can perform “civil service” just by asking. But you can go to jail if you don’t want to do even that. Or wear an ankle monitor for a while.
For sure, conscription in of itself is criminal but like the USA during Vietnam, poor people,ethnic minorities and developmentally disabled men are disproportionately grabbed off the streets and litteraly forced into service.
The men in Moscow and St Petersburg seem to still have avoided such issiues this deep into the war.
Maybe conscription is the wrong word to use, and more like state sponsored cleansing of " undesirables." Certainly helped the state reduce spending on male prison populations…
Conscription is always a horrible thing… but conscription in Russia is batshit insane. I read Arkady Babchenko’s account of it (he was conscripted into the 1st Chechen War, and essentially a mercenary during the second one) and it’s as bad as you can imagine - recruits in USMC bootcamp don’t know how luxurious their lives are in comparison. It’s a carnival of corruption, extortion and unrestricted abuse - and that’s just the basic training.
After reading that, I was no longer surprised at the Russian military’s failure in Ukraine - I’d say the Russian military is in as bad a state now than they were during the ill-advised invasion of Finland in 1939.
I beg to differ. Finland has conscription. And it is the backbone of Finnish defence. People here willingly perform their mandatory military service. You can get out of it if you want to*. But most don’t. People trust that they won’t end up in wars of conquest. It’s in our constitution.
Now with NATO there is an ongoing discussion about whether reservists can be sent out on NATO operations. It’ll probably end up with calling for volunteers and then using reservists if there aren’t enough volunteers.
Conscription is a necessity for us. And we’ve done it “right” IMHO.
*) You can perform “civil service” just by asking. But you can go to jail if you don’t want to do even that. Or wear an ankle monitor for a while.
Mandatory service and forced conscription during wartime are vastly different.
Ugh. Fine.
It’s terrible for everyone except Finnish people.
Happy?
Yes, we’re finnished.
you’ve found quite possibly the worst source of information on the russian army besides the russian government
I don’t really see anyone challenging his accounts of his experiences during the 1st and 2nd Chechen Wars - you want to provide some?