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It's not a war, but a Special Military Operation. And that operation goes so well, it is now time not to call a general mobilisation, but only a partial mobilisation.
On Wednesday September 21, at 09:15h, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement that was rumored since days: all members of the Russian Army's reserve, as well as anybody who has ever served in the Russian military, are called upon to do their duty in the Special Military Operation, fighting the Nazi-Ukrainian forces.
Refusing to report will result in 15 years prison. Skipping out during service will result in 15 years prison. And surrendering to the enemy without being incapacitated will result in 15 years prison, as will not trying to flee from a POW camp.
The move is not unexpected. The Ukrainian counter-offensive triggered the first comments on Russian television about the need for mobilisation, and it was just waiting until Russian regional elections had passed, last week. On top of that, the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation didn't go to plan, apparently.
First there was India's Modi publicly stating that this ain't a time for war, and that he had repeatedly asked to stop the whole thing. Then there was a falling out over the same subject with both Turkey and Kazakhstan, to which Putin apparently reacted very agressively. All combined might perhaps explain the rather confused press conference afterwards.
Immediately after the end of the SCO Summit, one Nikolai Patrushev stepped on a plane to meet with Chinese colleagues to discuss strategic stability and public security and law and order. He returned after 2 days, on the 19th. On the 20th, a statement by Putin was announced for the evening, but that was postponed for reasons unknown.
In a first phase, 300,000 reservists are being called up but, as Russia's Kommersant business newspaper noted, the total number of people who will be called up is secret, hence open to modification.
Do I need to add that it all ended with the threat to use nuclear weapons?
Official announcement here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 22 2022, @12:38PM (2 children)
You can rationalize anything when your pretexts can be so feeble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2022, @12:48PM (1 child)
S14 and Russian National Unity were both considered neo-nazi organizations. Who is excusing them and how does being honest about the timeline and nature of events excuse Putin?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 22 2022, @05:31PM
There's also the peculiar lack of readiness of the Russian military. Perhaps Putin and his stooges should have paid more attention to that rather than just take their cut? Fools can dismiss the rest as imaginary propaganda, but they can't hide from the fact that this war shouldn't have taken so long or have been so poorly carried out by Putin's people. This is a brazen display of weakness and there's no one in sight to replace Putin with competent, courageous leadership.