Russia: protests and complaints from the mobilized multiply in the barracks

A propaganda poster of the Russian army recruiting on the streets of Moscow.

AFP - YURI KADOBNOV

Text by: Léo Vidal-Giraud

2 mins

Mobilized Russian soldiers revolted on the night of Friday, November 4 to Saturday, in their barracks near the city of Kazan.

They are protesting against their poor living conditions: lack of water, food and firewood.

Incidents of this kind have been on the increase throughout Russia in recent days.

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The videos first circulated on Russian social networks before being authenticated and taken up in the press.

We see a crowd, in the middle of the night, outside, in what seems to be a military base.

Dozens of men in mismatched uniforms surround a Russian officer.

They overwhelm him with reproaches and swearing, they complain of having received only rusty rifles dating from the 1970s, of having no water, no food, or even wood for heating.

The soldiers demand to obtain, at least, something to be able to wash themselves and clean their clothes. 

All-round complaints 

It is a symptomatic scene of the unfolding of

.

After the confusion of the first weeks and the panic of those mobilized, the problems continue in the barracks.

A lack of equipment, dormitories, and sometimes even food and water in barracks that are sometimes unsanitary or dilapidated.

Nothing is ready to welcome the conscripts.

Complaints are emerging from all over the country, filmed by the recruits themselves on their cell phones.

And relayed just as much by anti-war circles as in nationalist and pro-war spheres, where people are indignant at such unpreparedness. 

In #Kazan, mobilized men rioted over poor living conditions and rusty 1970s-era assault rifles.

The so-called homeland defenders lacked food, water and firewood, and had nowhere to wash their clothes.

pic.twitter.com/XirlRrWZxN

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 5, 2022

Some situations are dealt with on a case-by-case basis by the authorities.

But all the same, these ad hoc responses are not enough to mask the serious shortcomings of the Russian military apparatus in supervising and training these new troops, even before there is any question of deploying them in forehead. 

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Ukraine: Vladimir Putin officially announces the end of "partial mobilization"

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