Expanding upon comments made above regarding the situation for those unfortunate Russians caught up in Putin's mobilization.
Izzt Lugg and Radio Free Europe wrote:
“Everyone's drunk. No uniforms. No food.”
That's Aleksandr Koltun, a thirty-five-year-old father of six talking to his wife back in Russia two days after being drafted and sent to Ukraine. He's the fellow on the right in the photograph. Nine days later he was dead. Now his family can't get any information from the Russian military or government concerning the location of his remains. Poof, he's gone.
Newly drafted Russian soldiers are referred to as mobiki to distinguish them from kontraktniki (contract soldiers) and srochniki (18-year-old conscripts). Mobiki are regarded as simple cannon fodder. They're sent to plug gaps in crumbling defenses on the front lines.
Mobiki have to buy all their own equipment. Uniforms, boots, first-aid supplies, food – just about everything short of a Kalashnikov. The Russian military seems to have plenty of those. But even then mobiki are oftentimes obligated to buy them and sufficient ammunition.
So as you can imagine, mobikis don't tend to last terribly long on the battlefield. They also have a higher rate of suicide and desertion than other Russian troops.
This is Putin's great mobilization. A ragtag collection of ordinary Russian men with limited training and insufficient equipment or food (but vodka aplenty) combined with convicts, alcoholics and drug addicts. You're forced to start wondering just how long the Russian people – or the Kremlin for that matter – are willing to slavishly follow Putin off the cliff of self-destruction.
The story of Aleksandr Koltun has been played out in some form or another, thousands of times since February 24, 2022. Russia has slaughtered thousands of civilians, including women and children by indiscriminate artillery shelling, missile, and drone terror attacks on civilian targets.
The longer this senseless war drags on and Putin uses more and more of his dwindling missile and drone supply to kill Ukrainian civilians, while failing to support his own troops on the battlefield, the weaker his position becomes. These actions only serve to cement the Ukrainian and NATO resolve that Russia must be rendered economically and militarily unable to engage in these kinds of actions until a fundamental change is made in its culture and governance.
The prime minister of Finland, thirty-four-year-old Sanna Marin, recently replied to the question of what needs to happen in Ukraine by simply saying, "Putin needs to leave."
As the leader of Finland, she speaks with some authority on the matter. Finland has integrated its indigenous Sami population (Lapplanders) into society and has successfully defended itself against Russian aggression at least three times in the 20th century without NATO support.
Many, both inside and outside Russia, believe that it needs, and is headed for, yet another revolution. Yeltsin had the right idea in the 1990s but did not have the knowledge or understanding to make it happen. His biggest mistake was choosing Putin as a successor. A free and fair national election at the time would have been preferred.
This time the revolution needs generational change and a new constitution for the adoption of some form of Westen European social democracy. It must be designed to work for the rural populations as well as the citizens of Moscow and St. Petersburg. For a time after Yeltsin, Russia tried to emulate the Chinese model for development - a one-party communist dictatorship that tolerates limited capitalism. But their history, lack of experience and understanding of free market economics, and culture got in the way.
One of the most successful and progressive periods in Russian history was led by a foreign female, Catherine the Great, who was an import from Prussia. Russia currently imports most of its technology and extracts and exports natural resource products for revenue. Once Putin is gone, and the oligarchs have seen the light, the Duma and Russia might want to consider again importing their political leadership for the transition period as was done in the late 18th century - someone who represents a true generation and political change, someone like Sanna Marin.
