Voenkor Kots said he did not have time to ask Putin a question

War correspondent and member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation (HRC) Alexander Kots in an interview with Gazeta.ru told about how, at a meeting with the head of state Vladimir Putin on December 7, he wanted to ask questions that the relatives of military personnel address him with, but did not have time to do this. The journalist noted that some of the topics were raised by his colleagues. Other issues will be decided under other circumstances.

“Indeed, I did not have time to ask a question,” said Kots. “Not just me, many members of the Human Rights Council. It’s probably strange to be offended in such a situation. ” He added that he understands that the president’s schedule is limited. The military commissar explained that he was not going to just ask questions, but planned to voice the pain points with which the relatives of the servicemen turned to him. “Because it is inappropriate to raise purely military issues in the HRC format, but those complaints that come from relatives of the military deserve attention,” the journalist emphasized.

Kots indicated that some of the topics he was going to talk about with the head of the Russian state were raised by other members of the HRC. The journalist himself had a whole folder with “concrete private examples, with the fate of people.” The questions that the military commander wanted to ask Vladimir Putin in connection with this will be transferred to the president and will be resolved in manual mode.

Kotz noted that this was his first meeting with the president as a member of the HRC. The journalist was pleasantly surprised by the fact that many human rights activists are helping the Russian military. He explained that people with problems due to a lack of communication with relatives on the front line most often turn to him personally. The military commissar noted that during his work in the special military operation zone, he noticed the absence of field mail “as a class.” According to his observations, 70% of requests from relatives of Russian servicemen begin with the words “help me find my son (husband, father).”

The problem of communication between relatives and servicemen on the front lines is a serious one. “It is clear that somewhere there is no connection, somewhere you cannot go on the air by phone so that your position is not discovered,” Kots explained. “But before the Great Patriotic War, we were considered the most reading country, and during the Great Patriotic War we became the most writing country — during the four years of the war, almost 11 billion letters were sent to and from the front. At any end of the country, one could drop the triangle into a mailbox and be sure that the letter would reach the address. And for 9 months I did not observe the field mail as a class.

The journalist noted that he knew that the RF Ministry of Defense published the field mail address a few days ago. Through it, people can send correspondence to relatives on the front line. However, he does not yet have reviews of her work, despite the fact that the problem of communication with relatives worries hundreds of thousands of people.

The second group of issues that Alexander Kots wanted to discuss with the head of state is the lack of payments to some military personnel and the lack of equipment, as well as special equipment needed in military service. According to the journalist, this problem is especially acute for volunteers who have signed short-term contracts with the RF Ministry of Defense. “I know people who are not paid any money at all for fighting for 4 months,” the military commander gave an example. He added that refugees from Kherson also have a problem of non-payment. Some people had to come back from the evacuation because they couldn’t get through the bureaucratic obstacles. “For the sake of fairness, it must be said that this is not a system error, but such an excess of the performer,” Kots believes.

The problem of the shortage of winter equipment for military personnel who are now fighting in difficult conditions – living in forests and fields – is not always the result of “criminal bungling of the rear.” It’s just that the form wears out quickly in the cold and dampness. “And according to the charter, you are supposed to have one summer set, one winter set a year, and that’s all,” Kots pointed out.

The military correspondent also worries about the poor equipment of military personnel, including those mobilized, with special means that are needed when on duty: they do not have enough thermal imagers and night devices.

Recall that at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and members of the Human Rights Council on December 7, the Russian leader said that there was no need for additional mobilization measures. The head of state noted that the military operation in Ukraine had already brought “significant results”, in particular, the annexation of new territories.

Formerly MK told that the editorial journalist Eva Merkacheva at the HRC asked Putin to ban shackles in places where people are held until sentencing. The main part of her speech was devoted to the problems of keeping prisoners in pre-trial detention centers.

The HRC is an advisory body. Its main task is to inform the president and assist him in ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens. The Council does not work with appeals from Russians in private, but considers information about mass violations against individuals, studies and responds to collective appeals and complaints from Russian residents. HRC members are 48 outstanding citizens of our country who have made a great contribution to the protection of human rights. Among them are the editor-in-chief of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, head of the Union of Journalists of Moscow Pavel Gusev, who is on the presidium of this organization, and columnist Eva Merkacheva. The chairman of the HRC is Presidential Adviser Valery Fadeev.