When it comes to the Russian Federation, the mask of freedom has slipped almost completely from Vladimir Putin’s face in recent years, as the President-turned-Dictator continues to embrace his faux strong-man image.
And, in doing so, Putin has largely struck fear into the heats of the rest of the Russian political machine, with many now so abjectly terrified of the Kremlin’s tyrant on account of his past actions against his critics.
The failed invasion of Ukraine has begun to change all that, however, as Moscow’s military might has been exposed as a fraud, and even some once-reluctant Russian lawmakers are now taking umbrage with Putin’s pathetic leadership.
Regional leaders in Russia have written to President Vladimir Putin, urging him to declare an end to his mobilization for the war in Ukraine, amid chatter that that the Kremlin may call up even more reservists.
Emilia Slabunova, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, posted the letter to her Telegram channel on Tuesday. The letter was also signed by her colleague Inna Boluchevskaya. Both are party deputies for the liberal Yabloko political party — which opposes the war in Ukraine — in the northwestern Russian region of Karelia.
Slabunova wrote on her Telegram channel that Russia’s Defense Ministry said the mobilization was “complete,” but it has not issued any legal guarantee that the call-ups wouldn’t reoccur.
She called on Putin to issue a decree officially stating that the mobilization was over — just as he announced a decree to initiate the call to arms on September 21.
There could be more trouble coming as well.
Slabunova’s letter comes as chatter intensified that Russia may be planning another draft, after the 300,000 draftees it sent to Ukraine were reported to be demoralized and taking heavy casualties.
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers in Russia have been circulating claims that another mobilization will take place on December 2022 or January 2023, according to the Institute of War.
Russian telegram channels have also been discussing an image of a draft summons received by a resident of St. Petersburg, which told him to report for mobilization in January 2023, per the institute’s Friday assessment.
Ukraine has so thoroughly humiliated the Russian army that there are real fears in Moscow that Crimea could be taken back by Ukraine, after its illegal annexation to Russia in 2014.
