In Moscow, Mikhail Suetin was expected to be detained at a demonstration against the sending of thousands of reservists to Ukraine. However, he did not foresee that he would be ordered to mobilize to go to the front.
Hours after Vladimir Putin announced that 300,000 men and women would be mobilized on Wednesday, 21st, the 29-year-old musician went to protest on Mikhail Arbat Street.
He was detained, like 1300 people across the country.
“I was waiting for the usual procedures: prison, police station, court,” says the young man, interviewed by AFP by phone on Thursday (22).
“But it was a surprise when you said to me, ‘Tomorrow you will go to war,’ (…)”, says the musician.
According to the independent expert NGO OVD-Info, Suetin is not the only protester who received a mobilization order at the police station after being detained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters there was nothing “illegal” about it.
Suetin says that after his arrest, the police took him to a room where they asked him to sign a subpoena to go to an army mobilization center.
The opponent of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, launched on February 24, detailed the threat “Either sign this or go to prison for ten years”.
Last Tuesday (20), on the eve of mobilization, parliament imposed heavy prison sentences for deserters and those who refused to join the army.
However, the text has not yet entered into force.
Refusing to sign the subpoena on the advice of her lawyer, Süetin was released on Thursday morning (22).
But officers warned that the powerful Investigative Committee, which is responsible for Russia’s most important criminal investigations, would be informed of the refusal, which would bring it “big problems”.
“Sorry I signed”
Andrei, who turned 19 last week, also took part in demonstrations in Moscow on Wednesday. He was arrested and received the same call for mobilization.
Unlike Suetin, the teenager signed the document “threatened” and had access to a digital copy of the AFP.
“Obviously I couldn’t escape. I looked around and decided I couldn’t resist,” he told AFP by phone. “Sorry, I signed,” says the teenager.
Andrei has just started his education at the university. Despite the Kremlin and Defense Minister Serguei Shoigou’s assurances that no cadets would be drafted and that the Russian forces would prefer reservists with certain skills or military experience, the young man was still subpoenaed.
“But as they say here, Russia is a country where the expansion of the possible is endless,” he bitterly states.
Andrei, who is still seeking a lawyer, decided not to go to the mobilization center at the scheduled time at 10:00 on Thursday, although he did not know what the results would be.
“I didn’t say anything because my family would be worried,” she explains. “I’ll tell you when I have a clearer idea of what’s going to happen to me,” the boy adds.
source: Noticias
