Russia: Draft officer shot; A man sets himself on fire.

[speak easy]

Russia: man shoots officer drafting residents for war in Ukraine

In separate incident, another man sets himself on fire as protests at Putin’s 'partial' mobilisation continue

A Russian draft officer has been shot by a man angry at his friend’s conscription and another man has set himself on fire in a protest as opposition to Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation for the war in Ukraine grows.

Protests were also expected to continue for a third day in Russia’s Dagestan region, where officers have fired automatic weapons in the air to disperse angry crowds. Meanwhile, thousands of cars have lined up at the Russian borders carrying young men seeking to flee the country in order to escape the draft.

There is a sense that tensions are rising across Russia, as angry showdowns at local draft centres play out in videos published to social media and rumours circulate about an impending closure of the borders or even martial law.

This is “only the fifth day” of conscription, wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president. “[This is] before the coffins begin to return.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/26/russia-man-shoots-commander-drafting-residents-for-war-in-ukraine

[Walleye]

1. Pootie fucked up big time.

The Russian people thought they had a deal. Putin could do anything he wanted as long as it didn’t affect their lives. He broke the contract

[Botany]

2. Hopefully we are seeing the start of a 2nd Russian Revolution

> 25% of Russians don't have indoor plumbing that includes flush toilets and hot water
but Putin lives in a castles that cost >1 billion dollars. Putin's unneeded war with Ukraine
has cost @ least 50,000 dead Russians and the Russians are getting their ass kicked all over
the place. Putin can say he is calling up 300,000 more Russians but he can't keep the Troops
he has in Ukraine supplied with food, water, medical care, gasoline, weapons and ammo, and
safe from drone attacks.

I hope the Russian military revolts along with the Russians themselves and they take out Putin.

[sop]

3. It's looking more likely every day.

[Botany]

8. When the military and police in E. Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and so on flipped ....

... the Communists controlling those countries were done for. One can hope the same thing happens
in both Russia and with the Russian military in Ukraine.

[speak easy]

9. The military and police did not flip in E. Germany.

The Party gave up. Without orders to shoot ppl fleeing to West Berlin, the military and police stood by and watched.

[Botany]

10. some of the military in E. Germany flipped.

In one of my life's more interesting moments I spent some time with some East
German Soldiers in Dresden not long after the wall started to go down in January
1990. The soldiers from Dresden went to Berlin to demonstrate against the communist
government, the troops from Berlin went to Leipzig, and the troops from Leipzig went to
Dresden. The East German soldiers I was drinking with told me that when the local
police realized that the front lines of the demonstrators were E. German troops they gave
up and walked away.

BTW I wanted to know about the fall the wall and other stuff and the E. Germans were
much more interested in Michael Jackson and Madonna and why I never went to see them
in concert.

[speak easy]

12. Interesting.

The east of the DDR were starved of Western content because the West Berlin TV did not reach that far. The Bowie, Madonna, and MJ concerts were televised so DDR locals did not feel so isolated.

[Botany]

14. Some of the E. German soldiers knew a lot more about M.J. & Madonna then I did.

Some of them couldn't understand why if I had a chance to see M.J. & Madonna in
concert I didn't go.

[Phoenix61]

4. The draft officers, police etc have to live in those

communities. At some point, they are going to realize it’s just not worth it. They can refuse to do their job, be drafted and die in Ukraine or stay and fight for freedom in their own country. Not that difficult of a choice after all.

[Emile]

5. Russian people need to hand over Putin for war crimes!

[efhmc]

6. Made me wonder if conscription was still legal in the US.

"The United States military has been all-volunteer since 1973. But an act of Congress could still reinstate the draft in case of a national emergency. The Selective Service System is the agency that registers men and is responsible for running a draft.Jun 21, 2022"

I wonder if, unless we were actually being invaded, it could/would be enacted. The protest would be even greater than those of Vietnam. And taken to the SC as discriminatory to men.

[speak easy]

7. 'If conscription was still legal in the U.S.', W would have been out on his ear in 2004.

.. out on his ear in a landslide. The GOP used the same lie that Troops would be greeted with candy and flowers.

As Response #1 said, the Russian contact was that ' Putin could do anything he wanted as long as it didn’t affect their lives'. In the U.S., W went one better: A war with tax cuts.

[Corgigal]

11. Set himself on fire?

Set himself on fire?

Lord, feels like Vietnam all over again.

[Irish_Dem]

19. I had the same feeling. Viet Nam all over again.

We know how that worked out.

[roamer65]

13. The Russian Federation's days are now numbered.

[Volaris]

20. I really, really want Russia to be a functional democracy, with a regulated

capitalist economy...

After the wall came down, we let the wall street vultures loose on the carcass that was only POLITICALLY dead, and it destroyed another generations attitude toward western capitalism (and out of some need for order, Putin arose), so I get that they might be mad at us for that.

But what we gave them was the worst of us, instead of our best...

[tanyev]

15. So everything's going according to plan, Putin?

[BittyJenkins]

16. It is so sad

for so many families in Russia and Ukraine.
Somehow Putin needs to be stopped. So much pain for one nasty ego.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

17. Hopefully there's a basement with Putin's name on it...

[Warpy]

18. Martial law?

Just how the hell are they going to do that with so many military dead and now they're trying to scrape people off the street to throw at that useless fucking war? Are they going to give rusty guns to geezers and expect them to do the job? Just how does anyone think that is going to work? Reserve tanks and APCs are going to the front and word has it that half of them aren't mobile, let alone fully functional. Maintenance hasn't been their strong suit. Martial law carried out by old guys will last only until wives start putting senna leaf into their soup to keep them safe in the outhouse instead of shot at on the street.

Decades of robbing that country blind have left it a hollow shell in many ways.