Even the most enthusiastic pro-Kremlin cheerleaders on state TV are unwittingly revealing too much to the alarmed Russian population.
On Thursday, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization, Colonel Rustem Klupov, a retired military intelligence agent, appeared on the show, hosted by Russia’s top propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. The host immediately asked Klupov whether he was ready for the mobilization and he enthusiastically confirmed: “Yes, I took out my uniform and ironed it, got it all squared away, got my rapid deployment knapsack ready and bought two cans of Spam.
He also praised the idea of sending prisoners to fight in Ukraine, predicting that many of them would be reformed in the process, returning to Russia as model citizens. This only underscores the well-known shortage of troops Russia sent to Ukraine, since Putin initially anticipated—and his state media mouthpieces publicly predicted—a fast and easy invasion with minimal resistance.
Klupov told Solovyov that the new arrivals with prior military experience would be immediately sent to the frontlines, whereas others would first receive between one and two months of training: “They won’t be immediately thrown into the furnace of war.” And yet, arevealed that some of the freshly-mobilized men are being sent directly to the frontlines after a whopping one day of “training.”
Even prominent pro-Kremlin propagandists are openly expressing their concerns with the mobilization. On Friday, Roman Babayan, the host of the TV program, said that he was worried about military enlistment offices grabbing people without much thought for their usefulness on the battlefront. Babayan alsothe well-known problem with Russia’s troops relying on public support to secure various supplies for the military: “I hope that we will train these people well and equip these people well.
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