Editor’s note (September 21st 2022): This piece was updated after Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of reservists and promised to use

Vladimir Putin’s situation looks ever more desperate

submited by
Style Pass
2022-09-21 18:00:35

Editor’s note (September 21st 2022): This piece was updated after Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of reservists and promised to use “all means” to defend Russian territory.

D OES RUSSIA plan to declare a formal war on Ukraine and mobilise its reserves fully? “At the moment, no,” insisted Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s slippery spokesman, on September 13th, days after Russia’s army was routed in Kharkiv province. “There is no discussion of this.” Yet in a televised address to the nation barely a week later Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, declared a partial mobilisation of Russians with military experience. Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, said the order, which took effect immediately, would extend to 300,000 reservists.

The move had been trailed a day earlier when the Duma, Russia’s parliament, amended the country’s criminal code to toughen penalties on soldiers who surrender, loot or disobey orders. The new law specifies “mobilisation, martial law and wartime” as aggravating conditions. It increases penalties for soldiers who abandon their units during such periods, and establishes new punishments for reservists who fail to respond to a summons. The law was evidently changed in anticipation of Mr Putin’s declaration.

Leave a Comment