1/ Russians are signing up to go to war in Ukraine to earn money, because their friends are doing so too, to pay off debts, to leave money for their children, or simply out of boredom and hopelessness, according to leaked audio recordings of interviews at military recruitment centres. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian media outlet Verstka has obtained audio recordings of interviews at military recruitment centres in two major Russian cities. They reveal in detail why thousands of Russians are continuing to sign up monthly, despite the huge ongoing death toll. 3/ The overwhelming majority go to war for the money, whether to escape low-paying jobs, to pay off debt, or even – in one case – to buy firewood. 4/ Some say they want to go to war because their friends or relatives are already doing so. One 53-year-old engineer with a university degree, married, with two children, says: "All my friends left; they call and say, "Come join us." And what is there to do here?" 5/ This lack of purpose is widely apparent in many interviews. Many men say they don't know what to do with their lives and evidently see the war as something that would give them some kind of meaning. From one interview: 6/ – "I worked all sorts of jobs before coming here..." – "So, it’s as if you never found your place?" – "No, I didn't. No." 7/ They feel that things haven't worked out for them in civilian life, as in the case of Viktor, who wanted to be an economist. He completed three years of study before going to work in construction, but now feels that it hasn't been a success for him. 8/ Dmitry, a taxi driver from Sochi with a criminal record for theft and escaping, was simply fed up with everything. "Every morning you get up at 5:00... I tell my wife, "I'm just so fed up with it all... we sat and talked... [garbled] ...for the Motherland..." 9/ Others have no family ties left and evidently feel they have nothing to lose, like Andrei from Kursk, an orphan. His parents died in an accident, and his two brothers went to the war and are both missing or dead. 10/ The quality of recruits for the Russian army has sharply deteriorated over the past year, as Russian warbloggers and serving soldiers have also noted. The recordings show that about third had served prison time. Another third were unemployed. 11/ Many are poorly educated and doing low-paid jobs, such as construction workers, drivers, and warehouse staff. It's clear that they have little idea of what they are getting into, as they repeatedly ask if the contract is for only one year. (It is in fact indefinite.) 12/ 21-year-old Alexei from Irkutsk, for instance, wants to serve for a year and then do a psychology degree: 13/ "Right now, I’m officially listed as an instructor at a pit-bike club... I don't really want to go right now. Once I finish—say, this line of work or this stint—I plan to go through the tenth and eleventh grades and then enroll in an institute to study psychology." 14/ A common narrative among recruits is of wanting to go to war for the sake of the children. One man says: "My brother was a military man. He has a daughter. And my grandson is turning 11... I thought, maybe at least my grandson... seeing that his grandfather went to war..." 15/ A handful, evidently influenced by government propaganda venerating World War II participants, want to do emulate them and do their patriotic duty: "For instance, the realization hit me regarding my dad...Heroes of the Soviet era... they fought, ... And what about me?" 16/ One man says: "It’s about the Motherland—my grandfather fought and made it all the way to Berlin. I probably won't make it back myself. But for now, that’s what I wanted." 17/ Verstka's reporter concludes that Russian men are "going to war out of boredom, out of a sense of hopelessness, out of having no prospects. Going to war as an end in itself." 18/ He asks: "What on earth is happening in this country when grown men—with university degrees, wives, and children—go to war because of where they’ve found themselves in life? It’s not even a matter of social mobility anymore; it’s just a kind of bleak, grim void." /end Source: youtube.com