Editorials & Other Articles

The rule was that there'd be conscription and call ups, but conscripts wouldn't be sent to fight. Whether that still holds, I don't know. But there were recruitment drives, with bonuses and such. Most of those fighting aren't from what I call the "traditional Russian dialect" areas in European Russia. Those are west of the Urals, all ethnic Russians. They're from autonomous areas and constituent 'republics' or whatever the current term is.

Like the Africans, they sign up to help their kin have a better life. Some Russian bonuses amount to many years' household incomes and if it's you, mom, and 5 younger siblings, that's money that'll keep them going (when added to their current income) for years. Plus the propaganda is that, you know, it's moral, it's just, it's duty, and, well, Russia's winning anyway and national destiny and all that.

This lets the parts of Russia that Putin cares about suffer minimal disruption. Yeah, inflation. But food, gasoline, all that continues--and the war is far away and was kept that way. What may change public opinion is bringing the war into their backyards.

(Note that ultimately what's going to matter is what the hoi polloi say but those higher in government, in the security apparatus, or in business. A lone wolf gunman's unlikely to take him down. That, and what happens on the front lines--and in Krym. In April Russia had a net loss in occupied territory, but that was April and the Ukrainian gains were slight.)