​Russian state media released a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine to reassure women who have lost or are at risk of losing their children or husbands in the Russia-initiated conflict. Instead, “Ukrainian Pravda” reports that the women who attended the meeting with Putin are actually representatives of pro-government structures.

Putin and mothers of soldiers sent to war in UkrainePhoto: Oleksandr Shcherbak / Sputnik / Profimedia

Thus, the one who would report to Putin about the problems of the army would be a deputy from “United Russia” and the deputy director of the sports center in Moscow. Olga Beltseva.

Another interlocutor of the president was Yulia Belekhova, head of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee of the pro-government movement All-Russian People’s Front (ONF). She also heads the Association of Chairs of Councils of Apartment Buildings of the Moscow Region. In 2016, she was included in the lists of candidates from “United Russia” to the State Duma, but was not elected.

He was also identified Nadia Uzunova, who in 2019 was an adviser to the head of the Republic of Khakassia on internal policy, and now allegedly manages the Ust-Abakan “Combat Brotherhood” for the collection of humanitarian aid for the mobilized.

He also came to discuss the plight of mothers of Russian soldiers Iryna Tas-oolhead of the department for family, youth and sports affairs of the administration of the Kaa-Khem district of the Russian Republic of Tuva.

Next to Putin was the director Olesya Siginawho makes Orthodox patriotic films.

To Putin’s right, he was sitting in a black scarf Zharadat Agueva, who would be a representative of the “Chechen aristocracy”. Her sons are high-ranking security forces, the commander of the Zahid-Akhmat battalion, Ismail Aguyev, and the head of the internal affairs department of the Kurchaloy district, Rustam Aguyev. Both are fighting in Ukraine. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, repeatedly called Rustam Aguyev “brother”.

The latest information was made public by journalist Andrew Roth on his Twitter page, reporting that one of the mothers present at the meeting with Putin has two sons: “one is a senior military commander, and the other is the chief of the local police.” – threatened the mobilized that they would not get home if they were seen on the streets.

Dmytro, the founder of the War Translated site, also notes one of the “mothers” of the fallen soldiers Ukraine tells at the table with Putin, while he is drinking tea, how her son died in the war, although he allegedly died in 2019.

Thus, Putin invited mothers and women who served his purpose, namely to manipulate people at home again.

Putin will meet “from the arms of mothers, who, like every time, will ask appropriate questions and thank you”, expressed regret Olga Tsukanova, the mother of a boy who is doing military service.

“Volodymyr Volodymyrovych, answer our questions!” – asked this woman, who wants to make sure that her 20-year-old son will not be sent illegally to the front or to the border with Ukraine, where shells are also falling.

Soldier mothers vent their pain online

Mothers and spouses of Russian soldiers mobilized to fight in Ukraine have been gathering across Russia for several weeks and demanding in video appeals broadcast on Russian-language Internet channels that President Vladimir Putin keep his promises, reports France Presse, citing Agerpres.

After ordering partial mobilization in September, the Kremlin assured that hundreds of thousands of conscripts would undergo serious training, receive good equipment and not be sent to the front line of the war in Ukraine.

She specially came to Moscow from the city of Samara, located 900 km to the east, with the hope that she would be accepted in the Kremlin. In vain. “I think they are afraid that they will be asked uncomfortable questions. But he has to solve the problem!”, she declares.

The Russian president knows how sensitive the topic of soldiers’ relatives is.

Their status as mothers and wives of mobilized men who have gone to serve the country gives them legitimacy and some protection from persecution, since the authorities cannot see them as ordinary opponents.

Explanation of sociologists

In Russian society, “there is an instinctive feeling that wives have the right” to hold the authorities accountable, says Oleksiy Levinson, a sociologist at the independent Levada Center.

These women are “asking the state to fulfill its function as a ‘collective father’ of the mobilized,” he adds. “When the state or the military command does not fulfill its duties, women complain,” says the quoted expert.

At the moment, the movement is fragmented and poorly coordinated. The calls of grieving relatives are broadcast on social networks, where unofficial teams gather around more prominent personalities.

This also applies to Olga Tsukanova, who, in a video released by some Russian social networks, addresses Putin: “Vladimir Volodymyrovych, are you a man or something? Do you have the courage to look us in the eye? Not with custom-made wives and mothers, but with real women who came from different cities all the way here to meet you.”

Why Putin’s public speeches are fake

Kamil Galeyev, a Russian researcher and analyst at the Wilson Center, said in early November that the 2011 MMA fight in Moscow between Russian Alexander Emelianenko and American Jeff Monson was a turning point for Putin’s public speaking. This can also explain the recorded footage, not live, but with women from pro-government structures.

Putin was present at the match and immediately after Emelianenko’s victory, he took the microphone for a speech. He was booed by the 22,000 in attendance and forced to leave.

“This probably hurt: firstly, Putin does not appear in public much. Most of his public appearances are fake,” Galeev notes, recalling that in most of his visits he is accompanied by the same group of security officers dressed as fishermen, churchmen, etc.

Putin used the meeting with these women to tell women not to believe everything they see on TV or read on the Internet, because there is a lot of “false” information about the conflict.

What Western analysts do not understand when they talk about Russia

“What I find absolutely absurd when it comes to Putinology is that it tends to attribute Putin’s decisions to foreign policy interests, almost completely ignoring domestic politics,” Kamil Galeyev notes, adding that most foreign analysts only talk about “geopolitics.” and “geosecurity”. » when analyzing the actions of the Russian president.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that Putin is an evil genius who controls everything. It’s the opposite. He follows public opinion, but not in the sense of what people say directly (no one cares), but in the sense of what they implicitly want. And people [în Rusia] they want war,” says an analyst at the Wilson Center, one of America’s most prominent think tanks.

He also claims that a Putin who appears peaceful and doesn’t start wars for too long will be seen by Russians as weak and ridiculous, but a Putin who is “at war with NATO” is really popular.

“And he wants to be popular. That’s why he is forced to start wars, because that’s what people want and that’s how they want to see him,” concludes Kamil Galeev.