Russians are protesting and fleeing the country as Putin orders a draft for Ukraine

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin's order to mobilize more troops to bolster his struggling military campaign in Ukraine has been rippling across Russia, as the military swiftly drafts new recruits and signs of discontent appear to spread.

Putin announced the decision Wednesday, framing it as a "partial mobilization" that he insisted affects only a small percentage of Russians with a background in military service.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered an immediate call-up of 300,000 additional troops — even as multiple news reports suggested the real number could be three times as many.

The Kremlin has tasked regional governors with overseeing the draft and stiffened penalties for refusal of service or desertion to 10 years in prison.

Meanwhile, the decree's impact is increasingly clear. Dozens of videos have emerged on social media showing families and friends seeing off young recruits to fight. These were scenes few Russians could have imagined even last week. (NPR has not independently verified the images and footage.)

In Yakutia, in Russia's far north, a band played the popular World War II-era song "Katyusha" and onlookers applauded as a recruit was presented with cake for a birthday that coincided with his deployment.
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In Lipetsk, 300 miles south of Moscow, an Orthodox priest blessed young conscripts in civilian clothes as mothers wailed. "Mom, I'll come back!" yelled one recruit as an officer ordered the group to march.

In Dagestan, in Russia's south, videos showed an argument outside a recruiting station.

"My son has been fighting there since February!" says a women who compares the current conflict to the Soviet Union's war with Nazi Germany in World War II.

"That was a war ... but this is just politics!" a man retorts.

Despite government assurances only those with military service background will be drafted, multiple reports are emerging of draft papers being sent to people with no prior military experience.

Amid uncertainty over the scope of the draft, news reports and social media posts showed long lines of cars backed up on Russia's border crossings with Finland and Georgia, to the west, and Kazakhstan and Mongolia to the south.

Cars coming from Russia wait in long lines at the border checkpoint between Russia and Finland near Vaalimaa, Finland, on Thursday.
Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images

Tickets for flights out of Russia to countries with visa-free travel — such as Armenia and Turkey — are either sold out or have soared in price.

In Moscow, a channel on the social media app Telegram claimed to track the movements of recruitment officers throughout the city — even the metro — in real time.

"At Baumanskaya station, officers are standing near the turnstile stopping people," says one post.

At Park Pobedy station, a group of national guardsmen are right near the escalator. Careful friends," says another.

Avtozak Live, a volunteer human rights monitoring group, reported as many as nine arson attacks had been carried out on military recruitment centers or government buildings across Russia.

Rights advocates say police detained more than 1,300 people in protests that erupted in dozens of Russian cities following Putin's address — with crowds yelling "No to war!" and "Putin to the trenches!"

Police detain a man during protests against Russia's military mobilization in Moscow on Wednesday. More than 1,300 people have been arrested at demonstrations across Russia against President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a partial mobilization of civilians to fight in Ukraine, a police monitoring group said on Wednesday.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images

Many now face possible legal troubles — after authorities warned protesters risked violating new laws that criminalize "denigrating" Russia's armed forces with lengthy prison terms.

Several protesters of conscription age claimed they were presented with draft papers while in police custody — a move the Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, defended as legal in a news briefing.

Anti-war activists have called for additional protests against mobilization over the weekend.

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

I wonder how true this is. I worked with a guy who was in Moscow when the war started. We were hearing about all the protests. He said there were some but most people were primarily indifferent.

[Tarmaque]

I wonder how true this is. I worked with a guy who was in Moscow when the war started. We were hearing about all the protests. He said there were some but most people were primarily indifferent.

I don't know about protests. There have been a few high-profile ones that have been publicized, but I couldn't say how widespread they are. However the reports of extensive fleeing from Russia by those of conscriptable age seem to be more or less true. Particularly to such places as Georgia and Turkey. However I did hear one report from Finland that said border crossings were higher than usual for this time of year but not higher than at typically high crossing times. That said, Finland requires visas for entry from Russia, and has severely curtailed the number it is issuing. They are talking about stopping all cross border traffic from Russia after the announcement of Russian "mobilization." There is also word that flights out of Finland are all full and prices are increasing dramatically. Other border countries like the Baltics and Poland have already halted entry from Russia.

This means that the land routes out of Russia are severely limited. Only Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia are reasonable alternatives. Theoretically one could drive to China from Russia, but that route would take you a month or more. It's a long way through less than improved roads. One could also theoretically make it to the North Korean border but... HAHAHAHAHAHA!

I feel sorry for these poor conscripts. They're going to go to Ukraine and become little more than fertilizer for Ukrainian fields, and Russia will suffer yet another lost generation. All for the imperialist ambitions of a 70 year old dictator with delusions of a new Russian empire.

[Z is for Zangie]

I wonder how true this is. I worked with a guy who was in Moscow when the war started. We were hearing about all the protests. He said there were some but most people were primarily indifferent.

Yeah, but, that was before it touched them personally, as in their family members being conscripted...also, Anne Applebaum and Tom Nichols and Cathy Young ( born in Russia, now an American citizen ) say that it is hard to tell what the Russians really think, as saying anything against Putin or the government is pretty dangerous...the young urban elites etc are definitely not happy.

[Senor Natural]

demonstrating indifference in a dictatorship is a survival skill . . .

My dentist ant his wife visited Russia for a vacation, visited several cities, loved the domes in Moscow, but said they have never seen so many unhappy, unsmiling, untalkative people in their lives.
They also visited Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and Finland, and said the difference in people was stark - happy and engaged and active and open in those other countries, exactly opposite of what they found in Russia.

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

Yeah, but, that was before it touched them personally, as in their family members being conscripted

Totally. I'm not saying these reports are also over exaggerated, I'm just pointing out the bias of our media in this area.