According to a new assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence, it is becoming “increasingly difficult” for the Russian government to “insulate the population” from the reality of the war in Ukraine, and public support for the mobilization appears to be becoming a problem. .

• On February 16, 2023, the head of the Russian parliamentary group on the so-called Special Military Operation in Ukraine, Andrii Turchak, said that the group had submitted a report to Russian President Putin.
• The report is likely to cover issues such as public support for those mobilized and their families. This issue is likely to become more important if further mobilization (overt or silent) occurs. Putin may touch on these issues in his address to the nation on February 21, 2023.
• It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Kremlin to insulate the population from the war in Ukraine. A December 2022 Russian poll found that 52 percent have friends or relatives fighting in the so-called Special Military Operation.

This assessment came after sources in the Kremlin’s presidential administration told The Moscow Times that Vladimir Putin may propose changing the status of the military campaign in Ukraine.

Instead of a “special military operation” with an unclear legal status, Putin could declare it an “anti-terrorist operation,” as described in Russian law, according to sources working in the presidential administration cited by The Moscow Times.

In early February, The Moscow Times also reported that many Russians began protesting in unusual ways: flowers, stuffed toys and handwritten messages appeared in at least 60 Russian cities, often at the base of monuments to Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko and Lesya. Ukrainian women or near monuments to victims of political repressions of the Soviet era.

“This is a protest against the war, not just mourning for those who died in the Dnipro,” said a woman who laid flowers at a memorial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.

“I could not remain silent,” she told The Moscow Times in an anonymous interview conducted with the help of Vesna, a youth opposition movement.

It all started after last year’s missile attack on the city of Dnipro.

The ongoing commemorations for the victims of the Dnipro terrorist attack are the first nationwide anti-war protests since demonstrations against “partial” mobilization in September.

Russian tributes to Ukrainians, a sign of dissatisfaction with the authorities

Persistent commemoration of the Dnipro victims is a sign of deep dissatisfaction with the authorities, believes anthropologist Oleksandra Arkhipova.

“Improvised memorial events appear when people feel some kind of injustice,” Arkhipova told The Moscow Times.

“It’s an attempt to say, ‘I’m expressing my pain and I’m protesting against whoever caused this pain.’