Mobilization required opposition – Newspaper Kommersant No. 188 (7389) dated 10/11/2022
[ad_1]
Opposition municipal deputies in Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to them, began to issue subpoenas about the need to appear at the military registration and enlistment office. We are talking primarily about representatives of Yabloko and self-nominated candidates. They have already tried to hand over subpoenas to ten oppositionists, including three heads of municipal districts. Their comrades-in-arms call it an “action of intimidation”, associating it with the fact that the deputies are helping the illegally mobilized. Experts believe that the summonses are distributed chaotically and are not tied to politics, but do not exclude that in some cases they are really used against the opposition.
The story of the delivery of the agenda to the head of the Kurkino district, Ilya Svetikov, received the greatest resonance in Moscow. As Kommersant previously reported, this is the only district of the capital where, after the September elections, non-systemic and pro-government candidates received an equal number of mandates. Mr. Svetikov himself was not re-elected to the new composition, but so far he retained his position, since the council could not elect a replacement for him. On September 28, the day before the first meeting of the new convocation, they tried to hand over the summons to Ilya Svetikov (this moment was recorded on video), but he refused to receive it, presenting in response the reservation issued to him as the head of the municipality. The oppositionist regarded the requirements of the military commissariat as a way of putting pressure on the council.
A day earlier, they tried to hand the subpoena to the deputy of the Mozhaisk district, Konstantin Konkov (in the 2022 elections, he was supported by the Nomination opposition platform). He was informed about this by an employee of the State Budgetary Institution “Zhilischnik”, who approached the deputy after the meeting of the council, accompanied by policemen. As follows from the video, Mr. Konkov explained that, being a full-time student at Moscow State University, he should not be mobilized, and also refused to take the summons.
On October 6, the oppositionists expected similar actions from the police officers who were on duty at the entrance to the building where meetings of the council of deputies of the Yakimanka district are held. Earlier, “Yabloko” Vasily Dikarev reported that the police periodically appeared near his house. The summons was not handed to the deputy that day, but his associates are sure that this did not happen due to publicity.
Former deputy of the Timiryazevsky district Yulia Galyamina (included in the register of foreign agents) says that she is aware of another case of serving a subpoena to a deputy who asked not to be named in the media. “He came to the military registration and enlistment office, his data was checked and released,” Ms. Galyamina told Kommersant. She notes that the oppositionists in the districts help illegally mobilized voters and the defiant delivery of summonses to them can be an act of intimidation.
Similar cases were recorded in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, and only in those councils where the opposition has the majority of mandates. For example, the head of the St. Petersburg municipality of Vladimirsky, Denis Tikhonenko, and deputy Dmitry Prytkov (both Yabloko members), a police officer and an employee of the military registration and enlistment office, brought subpoenas during their meeting with residents on October 4, also recorded on video. According to their colleagues, both have no combat experience and have not completed military service, which means they should not be called up. Later, 50-year-old Mr. Tikhonenko was told at the military registration and enlistment office that he was not subject to mobilization due to his age and inappropriate specialization.
On October 8, the summons came to the deputy of the Ulyanka district, Nikita Kirillov (self-nominated), who left Russia after the announcement of mobilization (he published a photo of the agenda in his Telegram channel). He did not support the special operation in Ukraine and was afraid of being drafted due to the fact that in 2007 he served in Chechnya. According to information from the website of the municipality, in addition to Mr. Kirillov, two more deputies in the council of Ulyanka have combat experience (both have the status of pensioners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).
Finally, on September 29, in the Murinsky urban settlement of the Leningrad Region, employees of the military registration and enlistment office came to a meeting of the council of deputies. The subpoenas, according to them, were issued to three Yabloko members, including the head of the district, Dmitry Kuzmin. The chairman, as follows from the video recording of the meeting, asked the people in uniform to leave so as not to interfere with the meeting. He did not take the summons and did not comment further on the situation.
It should be noted that so far in Moscow only one local deputy mobilized on the agenda is known – this is Roman Klimentyev, a communist from the Presnensky district. Another Mundep, United Russia Alexander Chufistov (Eastern Degunino), went to the front of his own free will. In St. Petersburg, according to Kommersant, not a single Mundep has been mobilized at the moment. In United Russia, Kommersant was told that in the whole country about 400 of its municipal and regional deputies were mobilized or left for a special operation as volunteers, but their personal data is classified as classified information, as well as any list mobilized from any other structure.
Political scientist Alexander Asafov is sure that the military registration and enlistment offices “do not think about politics” when choosing conscripts, and the oppositionists “simply do not want to be drafted” and at the same time use the summons as an excuse to criticize the authorities. “In fact, there is enough information about a large number of drafted mundeps (including.— “b”) and from United Russia. There are many volunteers, including among supporters and members of this and other parties,” the expert adds.
When the agendas come to everyone in a row, this cannot but affect the deputies, political scientist Konstantin Kalachev believes. “The situation in the municipal councils does not require any special action. The Moscow and St. Petersburg authorities have everything in order there anyway, and the powers of municipal deputies are extremely curtailed. But it cannot be ruled out that in some cases the agendas can be an instrument of pressure on opposition-minded local politicians, especially in St. Petersburg,” he admits.
[ad_2]
Source link
