What Russians are complaining about Putin

A complaint to Putin is often perceived by Russians as the last hope to achieve justice and solve their problem. Each month, the President’s management for working with citizens processes more than a hundred thousand letters. Questions are distributed to responsible departments, federal, regional and local organizations. Before the war, most complaints concerned the work of bailiffs, gasification, payments of benefits for children, and prices.

Already in the first months of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the number of issues on topics that are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense has sharply increased . In the pre-war years, the maximum number of such complaints was for 2018, then 2300 letters were written to the president, and in 2022 it was already more than 80 thousand. In total, from the beginning of the war, the president has been sent more than 180 thousand appeals on the issues for which the military department is responsible.

The main topic is payments

Most Russians are worried about the monetary allowance of contractors. The first letters to Putin on this subject appeared already in April 2022. By October 2023, the number of monthly appeals increased 25 times, and from the beginning of the war the administration received more than 25 thousand messages in this regard.

Mobilization - in second place in the ranking of questions that relate to the work of the Ministry of Defense. The bulk of the appeals on this subject came in October 2022, then the Russians sent almost 13 thousand letters to the president - about 400 every day.

In third place - a contract service. This group includes appeals to extend the contract, and dismissal from service, including early. Every month, Russians send more than a thousand complaints on this topic. The peak was in September 2023 - 1878 appeals. In total, almost 23 thousand letters wrote on this topic to the president. In half of them, the Russians complain about the lack of rotation of the military, uncertainty with the deadlines for the end of mobilization and the order of service mobilized in the war zone.

Appeals about entering the contract under the contract is noticeably less - 7966 from the beginning of a full -scale invasion. The peak of appeals on this issue came in September 2022, when the authorities announced mobilization. “These appeals can be connected with refusals [to go] to the contract. Although now the suitability for the contract is greatly extended - both in health, and in criminal record, and by age. There may be appeals from parents of conscripts to force their sons to conclude a contract. We do not know how many conscripts now conclude a contract, but after the call they are subjected to a strong recruitment, ”said the head of the human rights group“ Citizen. Army. Right "Sergey Krivenko. The lawyer of the human rights coalition “Calling to conscience” also suggests that appeals may be connected with the compulsion of conscripts to sign contracts.

"Return to the children of fathers"

In April 2023, the main topic of appeals to the president regarding the war was the vacation for military personnel. The first letters began to appear back in December 2022, and from April to July it was the main topic of complaints to the President against the Ministry of Defense.

In the fall, the number of complaints decreased, the mobilized wives began to actively use other ways to fight for rotation and vacation for their husbands. In October, during Putin’s speech on Valdai, the mobilized relatives massively demanded that they be returned home in the comments on the broadcast of the performance. And in November, women first went to a rally demanding that military personnel rotate.

According to the head of the human rights group “Citizen and Army” Sergey Krivenko, all military personnel have the right to leave, but not everyone can use it. “Despite the president’s instruction in the spring of this year, who announced that it was necessary to send mobilized on vacation, there is still no clear instruction. In this regard, such a mess arises: one of the commanders sends on vacation, someone does not send. The military are now generally put in a slave position: they cannot quit, they are not given a vacation or release randomly. And the military prosecutor’s office, perhaps, directs some requirements, but cannot influence the military command, and you can’t affect the Ministry of Defense either through the courts, ”the human rights activist comments on the situation.

According to a survey in a telegram channel for native mobilized ones, which passed more than four thousand people, 17% of mobilized were never on vacation. The Presidential Administration recommended that regional officials “extinguish money” with mobilized relatives requiring the military to return the military from the front, said “layout” with reference to sources.

"The missing people in war are almost always dead"

From the beginning of the war, the president began to receive requests for the search for prisoners of war and missing. A sharp increase in calls on this topic began in September 2022, and since April 2023, the number of requests has increased every month. In October 2023, the administration received 827 appeals-13 times more than in April 2022. In total, from the beginning of a full -scale invasion, the Russians sent the president more than seven thousand letters about prisoners of war and missing.

“The missing people in the war are almost always dead,” comments Military Analyst Jan Matveev. - Especially in the war that goes in a densely populated area. Either the soldiers died, or went somewhere to their own or to the enemy. And then they became prisoners or returned to their system. ”

The number of appeals about the missing does not allow us to name the number of those killed in the war, but shows the trend to increase the monthly number of deaths. In October, the Russian BBC Service, along with the Mediazone and the volunteers team, confirmed the death of more than 34 thousand Russian military. According to journalists, at least twice as many were killed at least. 30% of all deaths fell on the period from June 1, 2023 - on the counterattack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the number of appeals about the search for missing ones increased sharply.

"They want to send back to his, while the spouse does not have part of the bone"

In October 2023, the number of complaints about medical care of military personnel and members of their families, as well as the medical examination procedure, military medical examination, which establishes the degree of suitability for military service, and the process of receiving disability. In total, since the beginning of the war, the Russians left more than 12 thousand complaints on the topic of medical care of the military.

Even officials speak about problems with medicine at the front. More than 30% of amputations were produced due to improper bait imposition, more than 50% of all deaths did not come from life-burning wounds, said Artem Katulin in April, the head of the training center of tactical medicine of the Kalashnikov concern. According to him, the main problems in the field of medical support: the level of first aid and the delivery of the wounded to hospitals.

Among all the Russian military who received disability in the war in Ukraine, 54% passed or are going to go through amputation of the limbs, said the deputy minister of labor and social protection of the Russian Federation Alexei Vovchenko. And for 84% of all people with disabilities, technical means of rehabilitation are needed - prostheses, strollers, special clothes and shoes.

The wounded rehabilitation funds from the Ministry of Defense, but they have to wait a long time - according to military personnel and their relatives, from six months. Often, after the treatment of even severe wounds, the military forces to return to the front, military personnel and their relatives in chats on the topic of war in Telegram write about this.

“Important stories” told the history of the war participant in Ukraine, which, after six months of waiting, gave out inappropriate prostheses in size. “Active was not at all in size, the stump simply dangled in a cup. He simply could not manage them in any way: he was strained and tried to do something, but useless. And the worker was just a metal stick, ”said the military wife.

What excites Russians besides war

In October 2023, in the Top, by the number of appeals, along with questions about military personnel, there were complaints about the amount of salaries in the budget sphere, interruptions in heat supply, communal problems, and the amount of pensions.

In 2022, the main topic of all appeals was “Responsibility for violation of legislation” - almost 50 thousand complaints. Almost as much on the topic of payments of children's benefits. Among other popular complaints: high prices, the arrangement of immigrants, as well as decisions of federal and regional executive authorities.

Support “important stories” we talk about what worries the Russians to support

All this is obliged to consider. However, to “consider” does not always mean “solving the issue”. The task of the average official who works with citizens' appeals is to correctly send an appeal to the archive: to answer the unsubscribing and withdrawing him from the balance sheet of the department as worked out, the political strategist, the former speaker of the Kremlin and the ex-deputy head of the administration of the president of Bashkiria, Abbas Gallyamov, told “important stories”. In 2022, more than 97% of all appeals to the president on issues of the federal level were “explained”, and “supported” (that is, some measures were taken)-only 1.3%.

Working with the appeals of citizens and organizations has always been to officials on the periphery of attention, Gallamov explains: “This is a sphere without money and political significance. It is not at all interesting to the political system. 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. ”

Editor: Ales Marokhov