Photo: Reuters / Scanpix / Leta

President's complaints about war

During the war, the Russians wrote a record number of complaints about the Ministry of Defense. They are unhappy with the war, the conditions of the service and the work of the military commissariats. Research of "important stories"

Dear readers! Initially, the text about complaints about the Ministry of Defense was published with an error: we incorrectly interpreted the data, which was due to the number of complaints was overestimated. The editors of “important stories” apologize to readers and publishes the corrected version of the material.

Each month, the presidential administration receives tens of thousands of appeals from Russians: orally at personal receptions, in the form of letters and electronically. As “important stories” found out, in 2022 every sixth of them was connected with the war: the Ministry of Defense complained more than in the last six years. We tell how letters to the president began to express dissatisfaction with the war.

Romance from the "deep people"

In Russia, there are practically no legitimate ways to oppose the war. For a commentary on social networks, a poster with asterisks or the book “War and Peace”, people face up to 15 years in a colony. During the polls, Russians are afraid to express their real opinion about the war. According to sociologists, because of this, hundreds of polls show that the “special operation” enjoys high support from the population.

However, there was only one way to express their fears, complain about injustice and even criticize the actions of the authorities - and so far no one has attracted anyone for this. This method is to write a complaint to the presidential administration (AP). “It is forbidden to pursue a citizen in connection with his appeal <...> with criticism of the activities of these bodies or official or in order to restore or protect his rights, freedoms and legitimate interests ...,” the law says. He also obliges not to disclose the content of appeals and details from a person’s private life, and the authorities must respond to these appeals.

“Important stories” found out that in four months (January - April) of 2022, Russians complained to the president at the Ministry of Defense more than eight thousand times. This is more than at any other time over the past six years.

As we thought

Based on the results of consideration of appeals of citizens, the Department of the President of Russia forms monthly reports . They indicate the topics of the questions that were contained in appeals, and departments that are responsible for their decision.

Only those issues that "aroused the greatest interest to the applicants." For example, in April 2022, the AP received more than 88 thousand issues, while the division on topics and responsible federal departments is indicated for just more than 11 thousand of them. Thus, the total number of complaints against the Ministry of Defense can be more than eight thousand that we indicate in the article.

“Usually, a certain category of people writes to the president - loyal, but apolitical. They are not prone to rigid opposition. Oppositions prefer other forms of dialogue with power - protests, street voting. And these are ordinary inhabitants of the hinterland with traditional mentality and faith in a good king-father, ”says the political strategist, former speaker of the Kremlin and ex-deputy head of the administration of the President of Bashkiria Abbas Gallyamov. - This is only a part of the “deep people”, and not even of its lingering part. He doesn’t write to anyone about the luster, he does not really believe that the power will do something good to them. And if it supports her [power], then this is more out of habit, because there should be some minimum social order: “The president is upstairs, we are below”. They write, so to speak, romance. ”

According to political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky, people who write people's complaints can be called “infantile”, they rather believe in a miracle than in their civil rights.

“These people absolutely do not trust the Russian existing system, do not go to the courts, do not try to protect their rights. In principle, they are not familiar with all these instruments, they are not part of civil society, but what is usually called in political science the term of the time of the French Revolution is the “swamp”. That is, absolutely passive, but suddenly faced with a serious problem, which they themselves cannot solve, ”Preobrazhensky believes.

According to the calculations of “important stories”, the Ministry of Defense overtook all other departments in the number of complaints for the first four months of 2022. The ministry bypassed even the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Bailiff Service, the Pension Fund, Rospotrebnadzor and the Central Bank - structures that have always been in the top of departments with the largest number of appeals addressed to their address.

The topics of appeals that relate to the Ministry of Defense have changed dramatically. Until 2022, the top of housing for the military and their families, pensions, monuments, military burials and a contract service. Now, the Russians are complaining about the use of the army abroad, the work of military registration and enlistment office, a call service and contract, the payment of the military, the search for prisoners and missing and generally for war.

According to political scientist Preobrazhensky, these are the very issues that people addressed first in the part and command, but "all these requests did not work, as we saw by the example of the cruiser" Moscow ": the command completely hid and, apparently, still hides data on the victims and dead."

"They will have to look for them for decades"

In Russia there is no official public list of the military who died or captured in Ukraine. The last time the Ministry of Defense reported on the losses only on March 25: it reported 1351 dead military. The department does not report anything about prisoners of war. Their number is known only from the words of the Ukrainian side: in mid-April, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said that in Ukrainian captivity there are about seven hundred Russian troops.

When the Ministry of Defense stopped responding to the requests of their native military personnel, the Russians began to look for help from the president. Such complaints first appeared in April: the presidential administration received 65 such appeals (the number of complaints was not equal to the number of missing people, one person could file several complaints) .

Requests for help in the search for missing soldiers appear on social networks. Relatives of the military write that they turned to the Ministry of Defense and military commissariats, but did not receive answers.

Exchange prisoners of war, but take place, was taking place, told to “important stories” the secretary of the Union of Committee of the soldiers' mothers of Russia Valentina Melnikova.

“We have several hundred appeals from the regions from those who are looking for prisoners. Ukraine has lists on the collected documents, makes photos and video interviews, and this helps. First of all, we ask for those who have long have no connection with the guys, first see the Ukrainian information channels [ Blog , which publish interviews with Russian prisoners, or the site "Occupant", which was created by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)]. Then call the hotline of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and demand to include the disappeared in the list of prisoners for exchange. In addition, in parallel to write to the main military prosecutor's office. From our military organs, this process seems to have improved. ”

According to Irina Vereshchuk, since the beginning of the war, fourteen exchanges have passed in small groups - from 10 to 100 people. By May 30, Ukraine returned more than 400 people. How much Russia returned is unknown, but probably no less.

Find out something about the missing is more difficult. The war goes on the territory, densely populated by people, and if the streets lie on the streets, the locals try to bury them. The Ukrainian side has repeatedlystated that Russia refuses to take the dead, and expressed fears that this would lead to an environmental disaster.

“What we see now - our military do not find the opportunity for the body of the dead to take to Russia. It turns out that these bodies are left on the battlefield, ”says Melnikova. “But they cannot lie there for a long time, you can’t leave corpses on the ground.” They try to bury them and mark places, but there is no such opportunity. I look at these ditches, and this is the same as it was in Chechnya, when after the second Chechen there were 700 looted ( applied to the map. - Approx. Ed. ) Burials. The remains never raised. Such as now, has never been. The longer they neglect the need to take the bodies of their dead military personnel, the worse it will be later. They will have to look for them for decades. ”

One of the main topics that worried Russians in April 2022 is the military enlistment office and the work of the military enlistment offices, more than 1100 times complained about this.

"The military enlistment offices are now happening the same as in Soviet times: all patients are recognized as healthy, give summons and try to send to military units."

Secretary of the Union of Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia

Medications that the military enlistment offices intensified work with military military service throughout the country: as “important stories” have previouslyfound out , men of different ages are called to the military registration and enlistment offices and send the agendas under a variety of pretexts - from “to clarify data” to “to register for military registration”. Even military pensioners call. The regional authorities, military commissariats and law enforcement officers deny the very presence of such activity, but the tension in society is growing: from the moment of invasion of Ukraine about the arson or shelling of military enlistment offices from pneumatic weapons, at least 14 regions of Russia came.

“In the military enlistment offices, the same thing is happening now as in Soviet times: all patients are recognized as healthy and suitable, give summons and try to send to military units,” says Valentina Melnikova. - We have been fighting this since 1989. This is the only department of the Ministry of Defense, which has not been able to reform over these 30 years. "

APs are also received by issues related to payments for the contract under the contract and participation in hostilities. The Russian military expert, with whom “important stories” spoke with ( we do not indicate the name at his request. - Approx. Ed. ) Explore this overload of the bureaucratic system.

“The practice of payments to contractors is simple: one day for three, plus combat payments. To do this, there must be an order to send the hostilities to the zone, lists of personnel, contentment for contentment, and so on. Since the mass of troops is involved in a large one, the overload of the bureaucratic system is inevitable, the delays are inevitable, ”he believes.

Another question that worries the military on the contract is the passage of this very service. The number of contractors is growing every year-in 2014, there were more than recruits for the first time, and in 2020, the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said that 405 thousand people were in the Russian army on the contract. But this, apparently, is not enough. As the media noted , since March, military contractors have been massively looking for military contractors for sending to Ukraine, including through sites like Headhunter and Superjob.

In April, a contract under military service, including difficulties with dismissal from service, complained to the president more than 2.3 thousand times. According to a military expert, in addition to combat losses, the army of Russia is experiencing an outflow of contractors and conscripts for another reason. In the spring, those who went to serve a year ago are demobilized, and contractors will end with a standard military contract for two years. Not everyone will want to renew him because of the war.

The Ministry of Attributions

To complain to the president is an opportunity to speak out, but, according to data, often into the void. All appeals, including complaints, are required to consider. However, to “consider” does not mean “solving the issue”. It is also considered “consideration” to send a complaint to another relevant department. According to the political strategist Abbas Gallyamov, the task of the average official who works with citizens' appeals is to correctly send this appeal to the archive: to answer the unsubscription and remove it from the balance sheet of the department as worked out.

“Important stories” analyzed the total number of appeals to the President, which relate to the Ministry of Defense. Since 2016, the agency responded satisfactorily on average to only 3 % of them.

During hostilities, even human rights activists cannot achieve an answer from the Ministry of Defense, Valentina Melnikova says: “The military structures have their own restrictions, they have not all questions, they have the right to answer, we also have restrictions (we are talking about the order of the FSB No. 379 with the list of information, for which journalists and NPOs threatens criminal liability. - approx. Ed. ). In any case, I turn to them if there is an important topic. If the answer is useful, I take note. Not useful-I write differently, including the main military prosecutor’s office, the prosecutor's office of garrisons and districts. But the answers from them are usually short. ”

Sometimes you can solve the problem only through friends in the field. So now it takes place in the DPR and LPR, where almost the entire male population is mobilized , not paying attention to whether they are subject to mobilization or not, Melnikova says.

“Women of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics addressed us: there students were mobilized and sent to the war zone for the most advanced without everything - uncontrollable. I had to turn to the head of the administration of the President of Russia [Anton Vaino]. But I received “forwarding”, they sent to the Ministry of Defense. The ministry also did not give a substantial answer. Then in parallel we used our friendship with officers - we have been cooperating with them since 1995 and worked during previous wars. We gave them our appeal. Then these women from the DPR and the LPR informed us that this group was found, shoe, dressed, fed, made, they were in contact, and medical care. But they could not pick up from the front line. We still do not know who these mobilized are obeying. Then we were written by relatives of these guys with gratitude at least for this. And so we received an unsubscription from the Ministry of Defense that “the Russian Federation respects state sovereignty and does not interfere in the internal affairs of the DPR, including mobilization on its territory” ( the document is at the disposal of the editorial office. - Approx. Ed. ) ”.

“People who come with personal appeals are not able to create a problem to the authorities, to take to the streets. And since they are not capable of, they are not interesting. ”

Political strategist

The system of appeals from citizens and organizations has always been to officials on the periphery of the zone of attention, Gallamov explains: “This is such a synecure, a sphere without money and political significance.” This system went to Vladimir Putin from Boris Yeltsin in the inheritance, says Ivan Preobrazhensky. But if under Yeltsin the feedback was more thoughtful and it was more difficult to react to appeals, then with Putin’s arrival, “it was quickly stopped perceiving it seriously.”

“There are practically no people who are ready to convey negative information to Putin in his environment. Accordingly, a situation arises in which Vladimir Putin is afraid to report on a huge number of such appeals. On the other hand, even if he is reported about this, we understand that Vladimir Putin is the same person who is personally responsible for the war, it was he who untied it. To report to him about him and complaining to him about him is absolutely meaningless, ”says political scientist Preobrazhensky.

“In fact, this area is not at all interesting to the political system,” Gallyamov is sure. - People who come with personal appeals are not able to create problems for them, go out into the streets. And since they are not capable of, they are not interesting. ”