On Thursday, December 1, a new Russian law will criminalize any criticism of Putin’s homicidal conscription policy — including that by the mothers and wives of the ill-equipped civilians sent untrained to death and dismemberment in Ukraine's killing fields.
The war is lost. The only question is how badly. And, in an attempt to mitigate the disaster, a visibly ill — Is it cancer? Is it Parkinson's? — Putin is throwing every poor unfortunate the state can get its hands on at the Western-armed, highly motivated Ukrainian military.
There are rumblings of protest over this callous disregard for life. And some of the most fierce and emotionally devastating opposition to this desperate policy is from the wives and mothers of the men sent to die to salve the dictator’s ego.
Before the law’s passage, Putin’s fatal cynicism was on display during a televised meeting between the dictator and the mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine. This is how the state organ, Pravda, reported his remarks,
“I want you to know that I personally, and the entire leadership of the country — we share your pain. We understand that nothing can replace the loss of a son, the loss of a child. Especially for a mother, to gave birth to her child, fed and raised him."
Putin’s words conveyed empathy. But Mr. Hyde lurked behind his dead eyes as he continued,
"Clearly, life is more complex and diverse than what they show on TV screens or on the Internet — one can not trust there anything at all. It's just a bunch of fakes, deceit and lies. There are so many information attacks going on, because in the modern world, taking into account modern technologies, they have become especially relevant and effective. Information is also a weapon.”
His brief show of rehearsed concern was soon discarded as the autocrat attacked his mortal enemies — those who reject propaganda and dare to speak the truth.
Unsurprisingly, the meeting was not as Pravda painted it. The official position, that Putin wanted to hear the women's "opinions, ideas and suggestions,” is pure wind. Russia is a totalitarian state. There are no ideas beyond the state ideas. And to ensure the meeting would stay between the lines, the featured mothers were hand-picked for orthodoxy and vigorously vetted by the Kremlin.
Further, to guarantee the public heard no disparaging word, Putin’s media machine pre-recorded this piece of theater, just in case one of the mothers forgot her place — and started ad-libbing.
Canada’s CBC reported on who was not there,
“Left off the guest list were women who have been publicly demanding to speak to Russia's military leadership about the draft — and, in some cases, learn the whereabouts of men they say were sent to Ukraine and have not been heard from since.”
The CBC also interviewed Olga Tsukanova, co-head of the Council of Mothers and Wives. (A group formed to represent the families of the shanghaied citizen-soldiers) And she made clear why she had not received an invite to the Stepford Conference, "We have questions, but we don't get answers."
This pattern of the state suppressing the truth is long-standing in Russian history. The Tsars had their secret police — the Communists, the GRU. And Stalin made his war on dissent a national campaign of terror as citizens abetted the security apparatus in crushing their neighbor’s free speech. And millions disappeared in the Gulags.
The fall of the USSR and Mikael Gorbachev's glasnost offered Russia a tantalizingly brief glimpse of western-style freedom. But in 2000, a 47-year-old, ex-KGB/FSB intelligence officer came to power and has held it ever since. And in doing so has slit freedom’s throat and cracked down on dissent.
In March 2019, the Russian Parliament passed two laws. The first banned "blatant disrespect" of the state, its officials, and Russian society. The second bill prohibited sharing "false information of public interest, shared under the guise of fake news." Dissidents and free thinkers were fined and jailed.
In March 2022, after it became apparent that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine would not end in a few days with a triumphal parade into Kyiv — as Russia, and most of the West, expected, Putin took action to stifle dissent. His Duma poodles enacted a law to "prevent the discrediting of the armed forces of the Russian Federation during their operations to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, maintaining international peace and security."
Lawbreakers face sentences of up to 15 years.
But Putin is playing a losing hand. The public is often slow to act but when it does it becomes irresistible. Dictators can stand toe to toe against brute force and knock it down. But mothers do not stop coming. The saying has it that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but William Congreve obviously never met a woman whose child was endangered.