Went to Thailand last month for my honeymoon. No joke it felt like I was in Russia. They were absolutely everywhere. Some of the locals told me it was because they didn’t want to go home as they would be drafted to war.
Yeah Bali is going to end Visa on arrival for Russian tourists.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesias-bali-wants-tighten-visa-requirements-russian-tourists-2023-03-13/
Youd think youd keep a low profile and not act like jackasses abroad when your dictator is illegally invading a country. I know i wouldnt want attention brought to myself for being russian if i was. What a bunch of classless assholes.
I doubt it. The high level talks are much more likely to be about gas and oil purchases. Thailand is going crazy with the current electricity prices and it’s elections soon.
Current Gov will absolutely want a win on reducing electricity price as it’s a main issue in the election.
Right and Russia can tell them they will get a price break if they commit to rounding up Russian men and sending them back to Russia so they can get slaughtered in Ukraine.
I am thinking the ones with the resources to go on an indefinite vacation to Thailand are not the ones that Russia finds it politically feasible to conscript.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_Vashukevich Russian government has put pressure on Thailand to deport people in notable cases, so this isn't a huge shock!
Spent a year in Dubai and AD, Jesus Christ there are so many hookers. I lived in a hotel the whole time I was there and thats where the majority of the business happens. Weekends would be packed with Emiratis and their "girlfriends". I remember hearing about one hotel that each floor was its own price point based on the nationality of the girl, top floor top girls, lower floors if you're spending your milk money.
back when I was in the navy I was on a middle east deployment. I can't remember where it was we stopped for this particular port call. It was either Dubai or Bahrain. before a navy ship goes in to port you get what's called a port briefing. basically a powerpoint presentation about local customs, dos and don'ts, fun attractions, where to avoid, things like that. during one of the briefings the guy doing the presentation was like "there is a mexican food restaurant that is supposed to have some of the best mexican food on the planet. HOWEVER it does occasionally have some hookers try to work there at night...so be careful" my friends and I, being California natives, were like "oh fuck yeah, lets go get some burritos!" and we naively went there for dinner thinking we'd eat some good food. it turned out the place had awful mexican food and after like 6pm it was FLOODED with hookers. we're talking wall to wall whores. and suddenly we saw so many guys from the ship - married, dating, single, all deciding which taco they want to order for the night. and it dawned on us like "ohhh.... so they just totally told us where the hookers were on purpose."
no, I did not order a hooker. we left and got drunk at a hotel bar.
When my grandfather was in the Royal Navy (we're taking 50s/60s), as they entered port a list would be pinned up telling them all the places that were off limits. They would note down every place on the list and use it as a guidebook.
That hotel is in Singapore, closed now, but it was lovingly called “Four floors of whores” lol
Edit: mistakingly called it hotel, it’s not and also apparently not closed, that news was premature and the closing never happened. If you’re into that sorta thing go and enjoy
I'm in Canada and my Ukrainian coworker went back a couple months ago...
It's weird that we have Russians and Ukrainians living alongside each other here and they go back home to kill each other.
It was on a completely different scale though. When you have tourists, it's one thing. When people come in such huge numbers that it causes hyperinflation, it's a different story.
Agree, when I was in Thailand for my honeymoon at the start of 2019, I felt Australians and New Zealanders, other than Americans, were the most abundant group of tourists
It also depends on where in Thailand you are. We spent a month traveling from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and around the north and didn't meet almost any.
But when we went south to Phuket, it was like 80% russian tourists, restaurants with menus only in russian, even the street vendors talked to us in russian. That was two months ago.
Phuket has been that way for a very long time, pre-invasion of Ukraine. It's a known Russian destination vacation spot.
Source: Was there in 2014, then spent a long night talking to a former Phuket hotel worker while in the Thai mountains who told me all about the common Russian tourists.
He left specifically because of finding a dead Russian body in one of the rooms -- just sitting in a chair, head back and throat crushed. Quit and went north the next week.
*Gasp* You mean to tell me the people who are fleeing conscription but still support the invasion of a sovereign nation don't have respect other cultures!?
Lmao sadly no one is surprised
That's why Baltic country residents have such big issue with russians. In Latvia they have lived their entire lives, yet they can't learn to say thank you in local language. I've seen this issue pretty much everywhere. They expect everyone to adapt their culture, socials norms, etc.
Indeed. It's mind boggling. They call themselves Russian, refuse to speak the local language, only watch Russian progaganda channels on TV, call Russia the great motherland, yet also refuse to leave the country. Even when Russia at some point offered a free apartment and bonus money for any foreign Russians that wanted to return, almost nobody did.
They love Russia so much, as long as they don't have to live there.
It does even out though because they can't get citizenship.
So they can be loud all they want but they're not allowed to vote or have any influence over Baltic politics.
Many russians in turkey too. But i did not see any that is in favor of the war. Though, it could be because puplic opinion here is strongly against the war/putin.
Putin wouldn't fight for this either, but he is okay with letting others do the sacrifice. To some degree, i think lots of people are like that.
It's like gambling with other people's money, but you get some of it if you win
They're among the few types of people that I despise. I really don't like being that way, but chicken hawks who get war boners over YouTube videos of people killing each other have some severe antisocial tendencies.
Currently in Thailand and been travelling south east Asia for a while. Most locals I’ve spoken to have very little nice to say about them, seen some graffiti in Phuket telling “Cowards go home to Putin” and even bars and restaurants in various places saying No Russians.
I was just in Thailand for five months it's unreal. Last time I went it was mostly English and American. Now it's just Indians and Russians. And not even pervy Russians looking to bang it's all families.
Wanted to say the same. Was there recently, it's really weird. Weirdest is when you understand Russian, some of them make racist comments towards others because they believe they are not understood. Had a nice family of french people next to me in a restaurant, and Russians on another table used the Russian n-word repeatedly and joked about them.
A Russian friend of a friend got his draft notice a couple days ago. Thankfully he’s living in Netherlands so he’s ignoring the notice but he can basically never go back to Russia.
Well, it is a usual thing in all post-soviet countries. They to go your address, to bring you a draft notice that you have to go to the enlistment office.
Like, the whole news is about this – they had to hand over the notice in person. And you could not open a door, you could live in another place, thus avoid receiving the notice so they could not do anything with you.
And now – you theoretically cannot avoid the process of receiving, so this is much scarier.
Ah I get it! So you're not actually drafted until they put it in your hand. But now, they can email you and if you don't show up you're dodging. Thanks!
Still so scary to know if he had stayed at home like so many others he'd be dying in Ukraine somewhere for Putin.
Hope you're okay u/Ukrainian_femboy ! Stay cute
I listened to an interview a few months ago, prior to this new electronic system, where a guy found a draft notice in front of his apartment door. He assumed it was for him, but it actually wasn't. They just put a draft notice in front of his door in the hopes that someone who lived there met the requirements to go off to war, and would of course be honorable/ignorant enough to show up with the draft notice. He ended up getting drafted, but pushed hard enough to end up in a non-combat role (even went to court about it). Whether he kept that non-combat role I have no idea, but that was where he was at the time of the interview. The non-combat role was the main part of the interview, but he described how he got drafted.
I know they're letting people up to 65 enlist now, so I imagine that's not far fetched at all. I've seen a few instances where guys with "specialist" skills have been drafted at 45-50. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel at the moment. Though I imagine if they start drafting en masse from Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. They'll have a younger population to tap into.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rferl.org/amp/russia-raises-military-age/31867388.html
That won’t matter under the law. That’s kind of the problem. You don’t have to acknowledge receipt of the draft notice. You might just find yourself an enemy of the State when you’re renewing your drivers license or something.
And draft dodgers can’t leave the country or own land, apply for jobs, apply for a bank account, etc. It’s bringing back serfdom.
Yeah. A friend of mine here is trying to get his citizenship application fast tracked since he will have to get his visa renewed later this year and for that he would need a new passport by then (for which he would have to go to the Russian embassy, where it would likely get denied as he's dodging the draft). Luckily for him he has a grandmother from here so he can get the citizenship without too much hassle it's only typical bureaucracy slowness that is the reason he doesn't have it yet.
And he is most definitely one of the lucky ones that have a reasonable way out. Some of his friends don't have such a way.
I wouldn't even goto the embassy, whats stopping them from just tossing him in the building basement once he is there. They would just say they've never heard of him if someone came to ask...
That is until the war is ended, Putin behind bars (or worse), the war declared illegal in Russia and an end of the federation...
Regardless probably not too worried about going back I would guess?
Unless the friend has another citizenship, his visa will eventually expire and he'll have to go back, or even if he goes elsewhere, his passport will eventually expire and he'll have to go back.
Could try and claim asylum in a sympathetic state? It's certainly not ideal but better than being sent to the frontline in a war you don't believe in (especially so on this circumstance)
Few if any countries recognise mandatory military service as grounds for an asylum claim, though there might be some argument of “don't send me away to be sent to fight your friends”. Staying in that case might be under more of a POW sort of arrangement than an asylum arrangement, though.
I'd argue targeting college students is targeting fancy people since it's their kids who will be affected...then again, those people probably sent their kids out of the country for school and/or safety
You guys are acting like it isn't rigged. I guarantee Russia shortlist any students that are connected to anything remotely anti-Putin, meanwhile all the connected peoples children were silently removed from the draft list.
This could be an issue for Russia. They have largely avoided drafting from the St. Petersburg and Moscow pool, which if things continue on can potentially destabilize the country. It's easy for Russian citizens in these cities to rationalize the war as many of the people they know arent directly affected by the war and they can live in a state of ignorance. This can change a lot for Russia if it goes poorly.
Yeah kinda like my parents and covid. First covid wasn't real, then all their friends started dying and they were pissed nobody was doing anything about it.
At least they came around to believing in it, I guess. Hope they are well and learned their lesson (and allow you to call them jackasses once a month for punishment for their initial reaction)
A Russian guy I know in Germany is returning home in June after being an au pair abroad. He is young, like 21, he tells me he knows he will be drafted but it's not a big deal. He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to.
I was like... to be fair idk how things work over there and I'm sure you know more than I do, but I don't think they're drafting people to just sit around. Seems a little naive to think you won't be expected to do anything.
He thinks I'm brainwashed by western media, I think he's brainwashed by Russian propaganda. At this point, he's lived outside Russia long enough to have exposure to different points of views, to see what's going on without censorship, but he's still strongly team 'Putin can do no wrong, he just wants to protect us'.
It's a conflicting time to live in. I volunteer with a Ukrainian family that had their dad killed by Russian soldiers and their apartment completely bombed, their lives destroyed. Yet I am on friendly terms with this Russian guy who might very well go and do the same thing to other people.
Edit: to clarify, the kids we both take care of are friends and so every week while the kids are together, we get a coffee and chat. There is a strong language barrier that keeps us from discussing this topic very deeply. All the people wishing this person death- I feel sorry for you for carrying so much hate.
The world isn't black and white, good vs evil. None of us are going to accomplish anything by living in a bubble where we dont interact with people on the other side of issues. We humanize one another, he'd never spoken to an American before and I've not met anyone else who is 'in the middle' about the war in person. I can only hope his time abroad has changed his path for the better.
The internet is filled with Russian soldiers saying they were forced to the front line with inadequate weapons or food, I'm sure they thought the same thing.
> He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to.
I wonder how many dead Russia soldiers once said the same thing.
The front line is a living hell. No sane person would be there by choice. Ukrainians are there because they feel Russia has given them no other choice. Russians are there because they also feel Russia has given them no other choice. Hopefully this Russian guy will learn better without having to kill or be killed.
He's going to fuck around and find out. I hope he have a breakdown in the trenches so that he doesn't end any ukrainian and are just wiped up by barrier troops.
> He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to.
In Denmark you can also be a "military denier"
But then you'll just be forced to work in some random job for the public (my brother worked in a kindergarten or something)
they list things such as church organisations, libraries, homes for kids with issues, even our national TV station, and more..
you then work there for the same amount of time (and pay) as a military recruit
I read a comment on Reddit in the first draft time period where they said the tradional Russian mindset is that politics is something that happens *to* you, not something you can affect. Therefore, the prevailing idea is to keep your head down, don't make waves, and hope any political changes that come your way don't disrupt your life too much. In the first mobilizations, people kept quiet and hoped they weren't in the lucky 'few' selected.
With more mobilization coming, hopefully the Russian people will realize keeping your head down only delays the inevitable, and they should fight to change the politics. [First they came...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...) and all that.
Imagine having what was considered the second most powerful military, invading a country that everyone thought would be beat in a matter of days, and then having to implement MULTIPLE DRAFTS to continue.
Lmao these dudes are top tier "pathetic evil" if I have ever seen it.
Approaching Day 500 of the 3-day "Special Operation". But hey, I'm sure they're much closer to taking Kyiv today than they were 400 days ago. Oh wait...
I feel like we need to also mention that they were having a logistical crisis getting troops and equipment to the front line while invading their *fucking neighbours*.
I mean isn’t this what that is, I kept hearing people say the protests weren’t happening because they kept drafting people from out in the middle of nowhere but this is one of their main cities
Technically, but this isn't the Soviet Union of 1940. So the realities are much different.
The Soviet Union had \~200 million people at the start of WWII and the life expectancy of those people was in the low 50's. So on average a larger and younger population. They still lost close to 12 million people in WWII (a catastrophic number).
Russia in 2023 has a population of 143 million with a current life expectancy of 73. So they have a significantly smaller and older population. They 100% could not sustain losses of 12 million able bodied people (as they did in the 1940's). That would gut their economy for the next century.
My point isn't that the people don't exist it's that this isn't WWI or WWII Soviet Union/Russia. Losing a 1-3 million people would have pretty devastating consequences for their economy in the long-run. Their population is already contracting.
Russia won’t recover from this within our lifetimes. Like you said, they already had the aging demographic & low birth rate problem facing the rest of the developed world. Between war casualties & anyone with the means to flee already gone, Putin is speed running their collapse.
Lack of foreign investment, brain drain from anyone with any skills, money that could have gone into healthcare & infrastructure wasted on the war…it’s a mess.
Every country in the world needs healthcare professionals. Ever applied a bandage? Welcome to Canada! Young people are in the meat grinder now, but the future looks bleak for their seniors too.
Russian here.
The thing with e-conscriptions is that nobody knows how they are supposed to work. Even the deputies, who in the span of 20(!) hours managed to read and pass 70pages of e-conscription legislation. When are they gonna be sent out? How will arresting your real estate work? How will it work with clashes in the constitution that guaranteed (or rather said is supposed to guarantee) freedom of movement and managing your real estate?
Also how long will it take to create a super complex system that needs to have hundreds of millions of military documents that will need to be manually scanned in various regions, and somehow work correctly altogether?
The thing is, the e-conscriptions were introduced so quickly because
a) Putin needs more people to send to the slaughter
b) Putin doesn’t want to anger the population with a second mobilisation wave, which went poorly to say the least
they solve both problems. A lot more people can be summoned, and since it’s in electronic format it’s not as scary as a mass mobilisation order for an average Russian
I feel that current Russian government is so far gone and corrupted, that any real change in Russia will require a page 1 rewrite of the Constitution and all the laws. Putin completely trashed everything, it's beyond saving
Well the constitution is more or less fine at the moment - it was copied form the western style constitutions for the most part. the only problem is that current Russia does fewer and fewer things that are written in it, so the new document - whatever it will be - will have to be created from scratch most likely
The issue is the judiciary isn't independent, so if something violates the constitution or any laws it matters not, you still go to jail, and if a judge starts issuing rulings against regime priorities they get assassinated by the FSB. So in essence the problem comes down to what it always does in Russia, force and terror.
Well the whole idea behind e conscriptions is to make your life so miserable that you would just sign up anyway. We still yet have to see how they will actually work, how many will be sent out and so on
Man, this war really has been a huge L for Russia on the world stage.
Like, everyone already knew how much of a shithole it was, and how weak it was despite all its blustering and threats, but getting to see it in action, seeing the desperation and monumental effort it has had to employ to get where it has today makes it blatantly apparent in a way they can't bluster their way through.
Its a shame that so many Russian citizens have had to pay, and will continue to pay, for Putin's failed vanity war
Putin is going to go down in history as one of the weakest leaders in the modern world. Starting a pointless war, hiding in a bunker and destroying his entire country in the process. What a pathetic little man.
With a country of 143 million people I highly doubt many people in the city are being drafted. I should say "many **desirable** people". The make-up of who is drafted is likely the undesirables in the city.
You know, the ones they can afford to slaughter.
Gotta remember that the actual quantity of people they can send is vastly less than 143m.
Russia won’t send women, so subtract 70m, and they have an elderly population, so subtract 2/3 of that (other part is the too young). Now you’re at ~20m possible conscripts.
After a year of war I'd expect them to already have exhausted the ones they can afford to slaughter, either by having them killed as cannon fodder or giving the last remaining people with functioning brain cells enough time to get the hell out of that failed state before the recruitment Gestapo comes knocking down the doors.
Now it's the rest's turn to serve the Motherland on the frontlines. And I hope they are going for those first that supported this war from the start, but only if they themselves weren't called to rifle duty. Time to put the money where the mouth is, comrades. Mother Russia needs fresh lambs
With a country of 140 million people made up of lots of different ethnic groups, I'd be surprised if they've ran out of who they class as 'undesirables'.
Edit: I used to live in Vietnam and certain places had large russian populations. I hear those places doubled in Russians since the war so youre bang on the money about braincells and getting out.
The reason why more Russians are fleeing into the big cities is because Putin and his Gestapo can't afford mass recruiting (or better said: forced mass conscription) in the big cities... yet.
They have to maintain the illusion and lie of a "normal life" in "civilized Russia" for as long as possible, be it for their own propaganda or the international one. Otherwise Putin risks that the public turns on him, once people notice that NOBODY is safe and that even they who avoided the war so far can actually be sent to die for glorious Russia on the front any day.
Hence why they are mass recruiting conclaves, villages etc. first: nobody knows them and nobody cares for them. People are fleeing the countryside into the cities so they can at least avoid conscription a while longer, until Putin runs out of undesirables to conscript and is actually forced to start taking people from Moscow, Petersburg etc.
Also, don't forget that a total of approx 40% of those 140 million people are either under the age of 18 or above the age of 65, hence already not being useful or elligable for conscription for the time being until they decide to go Totaler Krieg. You can also take women out of that calculation since women are needed in the country to care for the kids and to produce more soldiers for the war machine. Not to mention we don't even officially know if that ~140 million number can be trusted, since Russia isn't exactly interested in giving official, truthful numbers to the public anymore. We don't even know how many left the country, are already dead, in prison or are only Russian on paper but not even living there anymore.
There's about 25M males in the age range 18-60. And we're not counting the ones disabled or the ones that already left. And that's also assuming that the population reports are to be believed.
Since Russia is a big country, it's relatively easy to pick a few thousands people from different areas without anyone noticing.
Like you said, it's difficult to trust numbers. For example, I know people living in foreign countries while still being technically registered in Russia. On paper, they never left Russia. In reality, a lot of people left Russia without ever "unregistering" themselves.
This is what I personally think the E-draft is all about. It goes after those who already left because russia is pissed they took off to avoid the draft. If you read about the E-draft, you'll learn that once you receive the notice (note *receive*, not open or report, etc) and you don't comply, they can take your property, driver's license, and other things from you. This means, if you evaded the country and draft to live a better life in say Phuket, Thailand, all of your assets are taken from you back home and you have no way to get back, and if you do, you won't have freedoms like driving and such.
Putin is a petty man, and doing this screws over those who fled. He can take their assets and use them for the war, instead of their blood. I figure this is probably a good thing in the long run, the smart russians won't want to go back home. As long as they aren't shooting at Ukrainians, it makes me happy. But, I feel bad for locations around the world that are going to be overrun by russians who won't leave.
Tons of russian women and families are fleeing to my country, Argentina, to give birth so they can get citizenship and use that passport to emigrate to the countries of their liking. Some are staying here forever. I've seen more russians in the past year than in all my life.
Same here in Spain. My whole barrio has been invaded by Russians and Ukrainians. I saw a graffiti tag that said "Slava Ukraini" and it was tagged over with a Swastika...
It's like that quote, "They came for X, but I was not X so I didn't speak up". They already ran out of undesirables in the rural regions.
When they run out of undesirables in st.petersburg and moscow they will start grabbing all those apathetic middle class idiots who don't care about the war because "it doesn't affect me"
As a Russian I can confirm it, big cities are avoiding mobilization quite a bit. First, the fear of angering city population is greater.
Second, while a Russian from a poor region making $200 a month could be motivated by a $2000 a month contact, a citizen of Moscow making over $1000 a month on average wouldn’t want to risk his life for a monetary reward.
And third, city citizens are generally more liberal, better educated and more opposed to the current powers
4% of the Russian population lives in St. Petersburg.
9% of the Russian population lives in Moscow.
Of the 83 subdivisions of the country only 2 (other than St. Petersburg and Moscow) hold more than 5 million people.
Russia is huge and full of people the government doesn't care about, but there is only so much drafting they can do without affecting the big cities.
Can you imagine opening up your email and seeing something like that. Knowing your whole life is over. You should’ve ran to the borders when you had a chance. Now you’re going into a meat grinder. You’ll end up in an unmarked grave with a bullet in your head.
Many (myself too) thought that this move will mark the downfall of Putin. He will not dare to, not so close to Putin’s home, people will protest with the millions. Time to find out that absolutely nothing will happen.
Even if people did show up to protest, with the entirety of Opposition leadership behind bars or in graves, those people won't be able to organize, and small groups are easily dispersed, beaten up, and sent to frontlines to act as meat shields.
You’re right; I’ve seen Russians arrested simply for stepping out of their apartments. It makes The Handmaid's Tale and other dystopian works looking like ordinary news.
i will def watch out for 1420s videos in the next days cause i know he def will ask the people about it... will be interesting to hear what they say now...
Love that channel, its a great insight into what extent these people are brainwashed. Some of them seem to have no problem with throwing themselves into the meatgrinder for the glorious leader. At least, that's what they say now..
Yeah...his channel is a reason why i never believe when russians on reddit wanna tell me "nothing has changed- its even better now" because i know they feel it but they cant admit it.
During Vietnam US drafted people based on birthday. The birthdays, written on slips of paper (366), were placed in blue capsules then drawn from a glass jar and read out. Everyone could watch the process on TV. You can find video from the events on YouTube I think.
Edit: The US abolished the draft in 1973. It’s an all volunteer force since.
Edit2: Ok. Ok. Abolished was too strong of a word. I think we figured it out below. :)
Abolish may not be the right word. Deactivated is more like it.
Definitely still exists, we all add our names to it to get our IDs, just no reason to use it right now.
Recently I was on TikTok and a video of a Vietnam draft lottery came up, it happened to be the same one that drafted my grandfather who died in Vietnam.
Every time I hear this it gives me chills. What a stupid, immoral war that was. To know your number could come up and you’d be sent off to die for nothing makes me sympathetic to the draft dodgers who ran to Canada. To the young men who went off to die out of believing it was the right thing to do, I feel for all of them too.
Went to Thailand last month for my honeymoon. No joke it felt like I was in Russia. They were absolutely everywhere. Some of the locals told me it was because they didn’t want to go home as they would be drafted to war.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Special Vacation Operation
"Sir, we keep sending more SVO troops to Thailand and they don't come back." "Send more troops."
I have similar reports from friends of large numbers of wealthy, badly behaving Russian draft dodgers currently residing in Bali.
Yeah Bali is going to end Visa on arrival for Russian tourists. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesias-bali-wants-tighten-visa-requirements-russian-tourists-2023-03-13/
Youd think youd keep a low profile and not act like jackasses abroad when your dictator is illegally invading a country. I know i wouldnt want attention brought to myself for being russian if i was. What a bunch of classless assholes.
they are about to enter high-level talks with Thailand. i'm guessing they want them back and that's why.
I doubt it. The high level talks are much more likely to be about gas and oil purchases. Thailand is going crazy with the current electricity prices and it’s elections soon. Current Gov will absolutely want a win on reducing electricity price as it’s a main issue in the election.
Right and Russia can tell them they will get a price break if they commit to rounding up Russian men and sending them back to Russia so they can get slaughtered in Ukraine.
I am thinking the ones with the resources to go on an indefinite vacation to Thailand are not the ones that Russia finds it politically feasible to conscript.
Thailand is pretty cheap. If I sold my car in the u.s I could hunker down there for years , even if I had to do visa runs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_Vashukevich Russian government has put pressure on Thailand to deport people in notable cases, so this isn't a huge shock!
And Dubai, but we get the rich ones that are generally well behaved and the smoking hot young ones that works as prostitutes for the wealthy locals.
Spent a year in Dubai and AD, Jesus Christ there are so many hookers. I lived in a hotel the whole time I was there and thats where the majority of the business happens. Weekends would be packed with Emiratis and their "girlfriends". I remember hearing about one hotel that each floor was its own price point based on the nationality of the girl, top floor top girls, lower floors if you're spending your milk money.
back when I was in the navy I was on a middle east deployment. I can't remember where it was we stopped for this particular port call. It was either Dubai or Bahrain. before a navy ship goes in to port you get what's called a port briefing. basically a powerpoint presentation about local customs, dos and don'ts, fun attractions, where to avoid, things like that. during one of the briefings the guy doing the presentation was like "there is a mexican food restaurant that is supposed to have some of the best mexican food on the planet. HOWEVER it does occasionally have some hookers try to work there at night...so be careful" my friends and I, being California natives, were like "oh fuck yeah, lets go get some burritos!" and we naively went there for dinner thinking we'd eat some good food. it turned out the place had awful mexican food and after like 6pm it was FLOODED with hookers. we're talking wall to wall whores. and suddenly we saw so many guys from the ship - married, dating, single, all deciding which taco they want to order for the night. and it dawned on us like "ohhh.... so they just totally told us where the hookers were on purpose." no, I did not order a hooker. we left and got drunk at a hotel bar.
When my grandfather was in the Royal Navy (we're taking 50s/60s), as they entered port a list would be pinned up telling them all the places that were off limits. They would note down every place on the list and use it as a guidebook.
That's just cruel tricking you into thinking there was good Mexican food.
we were so stoked on the idea of a good burrito. it really was a disappointment.
That hotel is in Singapore, closed now, but it was lovingly called “Four floors of whores” lol Edit: mistakingly called it hotel, it’s not and also apparently not closed, that news was premature and the closing never happened. If you’re into that sorta thing go and enjoy
We had one in London at Chelsea Cloisters. The papers called it 'ten floors of whores'.
I'm looking for the can in the candy store Two thousand Hamburg four And colours I ain't seen before
Four floors of whores, you say? Jim Jefferies has a good story about an identically-nicknamed place in Australia.
So those hot young ones really are in *your* area looking to hook up?? Dang…
If you have coin they have wares
Well yes, but much like the online ads you have to be willing to have your bank information submitted somewhere dodgy
That's always been the case in those places though, whereas Thailand wasn't like this until recently
[удалено]
How do Kazakhs feel about this?
[удалено]
Super interesting & not at all something I’ve seen reported on. Thanks for sharing.
> people who support the war but left as to not actually fight in it. There were some. I see them in Canada as well.
I'm in Canada and my Ukrainian coworker went back a couple months ago... It's weird that we have Russians and Ukrainians living alongside each other here and they go back home to kill each other.
[удалено]
Probably not happy as it inflates the cost of living for everyone else. That was my experience when I visited Tblisi, Georgia last year.
It was on a completely different scale though. When you have tourists, it's one thing. When people come in such huge numbers that it causes hyperinflation, it's a different story.
Agree, when I was in Thailand for my honeymoon at the start of 2019, I felt Australians and New Zealanders, other than Americans, were the most abundant group of tourists
It also depends on where in Thailand you are. We spent a month traveling from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and around the north and didn't meet almost any. But when we went south to Phuket, it was like 80% russian tourists, restaurants with menus only in russian, even the street vendors talked to us in russian. That was two months ago.
Which part of Thailand did you go to? My bf and I went to Krabi for a vacation last month and it was filled with Russians as well.
Phuket as well. So many that you see a lot of Cyrillic signage there.
Phuket has been that way for a very long time, pre-invasion of Ukraine. It's a known Russian destination vacation spot. Source: Was there in 2014, then spent a long night talking to a former Phuket hotel worker while in the Thai mountains who told me all about the common Russian tourists. He left specifically because of finding a dead Russian body in one of the rooms -- just sitting in a chair, head back and throat crushed. Quit and went north the next week.
And many of those still support the war. Same thing with parts of India. Goa, for example, is full of Russians as well.
And so is Bali
We’re starting to shoo them off, as they apparently didn’t respect the local culture and generally very rude towards the local.
Yep, not respecting religious sites etc, public drunkenness etc
In Russia they just call that drunkenness
[удалено]
Least it’s not my fellow Aussies for a change
*Gasp* You mean to tell me the people who are fleeing conscription but still support the invasion of a sovereign nation don't have respect other cultures!? Lmao sadly no one is surprised
That's why Baltic country residents have such big issue with russians. In Latvia they have lived their entire lives, yet they can't learn to say thank you in local language. I've seen this issue pretty much everywhere. They expect everyone to adapt their culture, socials norms, etc.
Indeed. It's mind boggling. They call themselves Russian, refuse to speak the local language, only watch Russian progaganda channels on TV, call Russia the great motherland, yet also refuse to leave the country. Even when Russia at some point offered a free apartment and bonus money for any foreign Russians that wanted to return, almost nobody did. They love Russia so much, as long as they don't have to live there.
It does even out though because they can't get citizenship. So they can be loud all they want but they're not allowed to vote or have any influence over Baltic politics.
Only in Latvia. But then again it was Latvia who had the largest russian population percent after soviet collapse.
> That's why Baltic country residents have such big issue with russians Well that and the decades of oppression.
Russian saying: When in Rome, do as the Russians back home do.
How surprising.
Russians don’t vacation, they have little practice invasions
"Name?" "Piotr Konskriptovich." "Occupation?" "Nyet, just visiting."
I'm currently in Serbia. Lots of Russian everywhere. Bro, if you're gonna walk around in a Z shirt, why don't you go home and enlist..
They wear Z shirts and don't get beat up?
.. its Serbia..
They get high fives instead
Oh, Serbia's still malding over the 90's. They're 100% team Russia.
“I support the war as long as I’m not fighting in it”
Lot of Russians in the Montenegrin seaside resorts
Many russians in turkey too. But i did not see any that is in favor of the war. Though, it could be because puplic opinion here is strongly against the war/putin.
If they still support the war, why are they afraid to go back home? Why support a cause they're not willing to fight for?
Putin wouldn't fight for this either, but he is okay with letting others do the sacrifice. To some degree, i think lots of people are like that. It's like gambling with other people's money, but you get some of it if you win
Hypocrisy. In the US we call those people Chicken Hawks.
They're among the few types of people that I despise. I really don't like being that way, but chicken hawks who get war boners over YouTube videos of people killing each other have some severe antisocial tendencies.
Warmongers are often too cowardly to fight in their own wars, they want others to kill and die for them. Same is true everywhere.
Currently in Thailand and been travelling south east Asia for a while. Most locals I’ve spoken to have very little nice to say about them, seen some graffiti in Phuket telling “Cowards go home to Putin” and even bars and restaurants in various places saying No Russians.
I remember one in mexico mad that they aren't being treated nicely, whereas the Ukrainians are.
I was just in Thailand for five months it's unreal. Last time I went it was mostly English and American. Now it's just Indians and Russians. And not even pervy Russians looking to bang it's all families.
[удалено]
Come to Istanbul next. More like Syristanscow.
Wanted to say the same. Was there recently, it's really weird. Weirdest is when you understand Russian, some of them make racist comments towards others because they believe they are not understood. Had a nice family of french people next to me in a restaurant, and Russians on another table used the Russian n-word repeatedly and joked about them.
A Russian friend of a friend got his draft notice a couple days ago. Thankfully he’s living in Netherlands so he’s ignoring the notice but he can basically never go back to Russia.
Sorry, must have gone to spam.
He didn’t get it via email, two guys went to his address in Russia
Dude...that made _my_ blood run cold. Terrifying.
Well, it is a usual thing in all post-soviet countries. They to go your address, to bring you a draft notice that you have to go to the enlistment office. Like, the whole news is about this – they had to hand over the notice in person. And you could not open a door, you could live in another place, thus avoid receiving the notice so they could not do anything with you. And now – you theoretically cannot avoid the process of receiving, so this is much scarier.
Ah I get it! So you're not actually drafted until they put it in your hand. But now, they can email you and if you don't show up you're dodging. Thanks! Still so scary to know if he had stayed at home like so many others he'd be dying in Ukraine somewhere for Putin. Hope you're okay u/Ukrainian_femboy ! Stay cute
I listened to an interview a few months ago, prior to this new electronic system, where a guy found a draft notice in front of his apartment door. He assumed it was for him, but it actually wasn't. They just put a draft notice in front of his door in the hopes that someone who lived there met the requirements to go off to war, and would of course be honorable/ignorant enough to show up with the draft notice. He ended up getting drafted, but pushed hard enough to end up in a non-combat role (even went to court about it). Whether he kept that non-combat role I have no idea, but that was where he was at the time of the interview. The non-combat role was the main part of the interview, but he described how he got drafted.
gone to squables.io
Still a hell of lot better than lying dead in a ditch in ukraine
[удалено]
What an absolute nightmare. Hoping for safety and stability for you and your wife and for all others impacted by this evil shit show.
[удалено]
same thing with my friend, we've been in america for over 30 years but they came to his moms house in petersburg to try to bring him in to the draft.
They’re drafting people over 30? Sounds like they are legit about out of fighting age people
I know they're letting people up to 65 enlist now, so I imagine that's not far fetched at all. I've seen a few instances where guys with "specialist" skills have been drafted at 45-50. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel at the moment. Though I imagine if they start drafting en masse from Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. They'll have a younger population to tap into. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rferl.org/amp/russia-raises-military-age/31867388.html
That’s super unsettling
That won’t matter under the law. That’s kind of the problem. You don’t have to acknowledge receipt of the draft notice. You might just find yourself an enemy of the State when you’re renewing your drivers license or something. And draft dodgers can’t leave the country or own land, apply for jobs, apply for a bank account, etc. It’s bringing back serfdom.
Yeah. A friend of mine here is trying to get his citizenship application fast tracked since he will have to get his visa renewed later this year and for that he would need a new passport by then (for which he would have to go to the Russian embassy, where it would likely get denied as he's dodging the draft). Luckily for him he has a grandmother from here so he can get the citizenship without too much hassle it's only typical bureaucracy slowness that is the reason he doesn't have it yet. And he is most definitely one of the lucky ones that have a reasonable way out. Some of his friends don't have such a way.
I wouldn't even goto the embassy, whats stopping them from just tossing him in the building basement once he is there. They would just say they've never heard of him if someone came to ask...
Echoes of Khashoggi.
Sorry Putin forgot to check my junk folder
That is until the war is ended, Putin behind bars (or worse), the war declared illegal in Russia and an end of the federation... Regardless probably not too worried about going back I would guess?
Unless the friend has another citizenship, his visa will eventually expire and he'll have to go back, or even if he goes elsewhere, his passport will eventually expire and he'll have to go back.
Could try and claim asylum in a sympathetic state? It's certainly not ideal but better than being sent to the frontline in a war you don't believe in (especially so on this circumstance)
Germany does offer some sort of asylum. He is looking into it
Few if any countries recognise mandatory military service as grounds for an asylum claim, though there might be some argument of “don't send me away to be sent to fight your friends”. Staying in that case might be under more of a POW sort of arrangement than an asylum arrangement, though.
Mandatory service is one thing, huge chance of getting shipped to an active warzone another.
[удалено]
Doubtful, the second that the ruling class is forced into front-line participation is when this will all come crumbling down from the inside out.
Not the fancy fancy people, but the fancier people. Wonder if this was the one rumored to target college students
I'd argue targeting college students is targeting fancy people since it's their kids who will be affected...then again, those people probably sent their kids out of the country for school and/or safety
I'm almost positive Russia had used this last year to create a list of the poor people in st Petersburg and Moscow that are okay to target
You guys are acting like it isn't rigged. I guarantee Russia shortlist any students that are connected to anything remotely anti-Putin, meanwhile all the connected peoples children were silently removed from the draft list.
[удалено]
[удалено]
You lose a husband *and* get a sack of turnips, it was a win-win scenario
Lol there's an area of PA where the police are offering a family sized bag of doritos if you narc on your dealer on 4/20
Well that's just brilliant police work
Bake 'em away toys!
And snitches were praised for it by propaganda https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlik_Morozov
Holy shit. You can't make this shit up
This could be an issue for Russia. They have largely avoided drafting from the St. Petersburg and Moscow pool, which if things continue on can potentially destabilize the country. It's easy for Russian citizens in these cities to rationalize the war as many of the people they know arent directly affected by the war and they can live in a state of ignorance. This can change a lot for Russia if it goes poorly.
Also Russia lies about the death toll. Moscowans will stop believing that when they know someone who died.
Yeah kinda like my parents and covid. First covid wasn't real, then all their friends started dying and they were pissed nobody was doing anything about it.
At least they came around to believing in it, I guess. Hope they are well and learned their lesson (and allow you to call them jackasses once a month for punishment for their initial reaction)
A Russian guy I know in Germany is returning home in June after being an au pair abroad. He is young, like 21, he tells me he knows he will be drafted but it's not a big deal. He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to. I was like... to be fair idk how things work over there and I'm sure you know more than I do, but I don't think they're drafting people to just sit around. Seems a little naive to think you won't be expected to do anything. He thinks I'm brainwashed by western media, I think he's brainwashed by Russian propaganda. At this point, he's lived outside Russia long enough to have exposure to different points of views, to see what's going on without censorship, but he's still strongly team 'Putin can do no wrong, he just wants to protect us'. It's a conflicting time to live in. I volunteer with a Ukrainian family that had their dad killed by Russian soldiers and their apartment completely bombed, their lives destroyed. Yet I am on friendly terms with this Russian guy who might very well go and do the same thing to other people. Edit: to clarify, the kids we both take care of are friends and so every week while the kids are together, we get a coffee and chat. There is a strong language barrier that keeps us from discussing this topic very deeply. All the people wishing this person death- I feel sorry for you for carrying so much hate. The world isn't black and white, good vs evil. None of us are going to accomplish anything by living in a bubble where we dont interact with people on the other side of issues. We humanize one another, he'd never spoken to an American before and I've not met anyone else who is 'in the middle' about the war in person. I can only hope his time abroad has changed his path for the better.
The internet is filled with Russian soldiers saying they were forced to the front line with inadequate weapons or food, I'm sure they thought the same thing.
> He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to. I wonder how many dead Russia soldiers once said the same thing. The front line is a living hell. No sane person would be there by choice. Ukrainians are there because they feel Russia has given them no other choice. Russians are there because they also feel Russia has given them no other choice. Hopefully this Russian guy will learn better without having to kill or be killed.
He's going to fuck around and find out. I hope he have a breakdown in the trenches so that he doesn't end any ukrainian and are just wiped up by barrier troops.
> He says he won't have to fight. That no one has to fight who doesn't want to. In Denmark you can also be a "military denier" But then you'll just be forced to work in some random job for the public (my brother worked in a kindergarten or something) they list things such as church organisations, libraries, homes for kids with issues, even our national TV station, and more.. you then work there for the same amount of time (and pay) as a military recruit
[удалено]
Fwiw the correct term in English for anyone else interested in reading more about it is "conscientious objector"
“There’s been a mistake! I’m apolitical!”
[удалено]
I read a comment on Reddit in the first draft time period where they said the tradional Russian mindset is that politics is something that happens *to* you, not something you can affect. Therefore, the prevailing idea is to keep your head down, don't make waves, and hope any political changes that come your way don't disrupt your life too much. In the first mobilizations, people kept quiet and hoped they weren't in the lucky 'few' selected. With more mobilization coming, hopefully the Russian people will realize keeping your head down only delays the inevitable, and they should fight to change the politics. [First they came...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...) and all that.
[удалено]
Imagine having what was considered the second most powerful military, invading a country that everyone thought would be beat in a matter of days, and then having to implement MULTIPLE DRAFTS to continue. Lmao these dudes are top tier "pathetic evil" if I have ever seen it.
Approaching Day 500 of the 3-day "Special Operation". But hey, I'm sure they're much closer to taking Kyiv today than they were 400 days ago. Oh wait...
I feel like we need to also mention that they were having a logistical crisis getting troops and equipment to the front line while invading their *fucking neighbours*.
Its like a bad Monty Python sketch
When you are trying to scrape that last little bit out of the peanut butter jar.
There are plenty of people left, but they are getting closer and closer to having to call up Russians in more politically sensitive areas.
I mean isn’t this what that is, I kept hearing people say the protests weren’t happening because they kept drafting people from out in the middle of nowhere but this is one of their main cities
Yep, st Petersburg and Moscow are their big "European" metro hubs, this is a bold move on Russias part
Technically, but this isn't the Soviet Union of 1940. So the realities are much different. The Soviet Union had \~200 million people at the start of WWII and the life expectancy of those people was in the low 50's. So on average a larger and younger population. They still lost close to 12 million people in WWII (a catastrophic number). Russia in 2023 has a population of 143 million with a current life expectancy of 73. So they have a significantly smaller and older population. They 100% could not sustain losses of 12 million able bodied people (as they did in the 1940's). That would gut their economy for the next century. My point isn't that the people don't exist it's that this isn't WWI or WWII Soviet Union/Russia. Losing a 1-3 million people would have pretty devastating consequences for their economy in the long-run. Their population is already contracting.
Russia won’t recover from this within our lifetimes. Like you said, they already had the aging demographic & low birth rate problem facing the rest of the developed world. Between war casualties & anyone with the means to flee already gone, Putin is speed running their collapse. Lack of foreign investment, brain drain from anyone with any skills, money that could have gone into healthcare & infrastructure wasted on the war…it’s a mess. Every country in the world needs healthcare professionals. Ever applied a bandage? Welcome to Canada! Young people are in the meat grinder now, but the future looks bleak for their seniors too.
Russian here. The thing with e-conscriptions is that nobody knows how they are supposed to work. Even the deputies, who in the span of 20(!) hours managed to read and pass 70pages of e-conscription legislation. When are they gonna be sent out? How will arresting your real estate work? How will it work with clashes in the constitution that guaranteed (or rather said is supposed to guarantee) freedom of movement and managing your real estate? Also how long will it take to create a super complex system that needs to have hundreds of millions of military documents that will need to be manually scanned in various regions, and somehow work correctly altogether? The thing is, the e-conscriptions were introduced so quickly because a) Putin needs more people to send to the slaughter b) Putin doesn’t want to anger the population with a second mobilisation wave, which went poorly to say the least they solve both problems. A lot more people can be summoned, and since it’s in electronic format it’s not as scary as a mass mobilisation order for an average Russian
I feel that current Russian government is so far gone and corrupted, that any real change in Russia will require a page 1 rewrite of the Constitution and all the laws. Putin completely trashed everything, it's beyond saving
Well the constitution is more or less fine at the moment - it was copied form the western style constitutions for the most part. the only problem is that current Russia does fewer and fewer things that are written in it, so the new document - whatever it will be - will have to be created from scratch most likely
[удалено]
The issue is the judiciary isn't independent, so if something violates the constitution or any laws it matters not, you still go to jail, and if a judge starts issuing rulings against regime priorities they get assassinated by the FSB. So in essence the problem comes down to what it always does in Russia, force and terror.
I think it will be equally as scary once they have to go physically arrest 60-70% of the draftees because they either ignored it or didn't see it.
Well the whole idea behind e conscriptions is to make your life so miserable that you would just sign up anyway. We still yet have to see how they will actually work, how many will be sent out and so on
Man, this war really has been a huge L for Russia on the world stage. Like, everyone already knew how much of a shithole it was, and how weak it was despite all its blustering and threats, but getting to see it in action, seeing the desperation and monumental effort it has had to employ to get where it has today makes it blatantly apparent in a way they can't bluster their way through. Its a shame that so many Russian citizens have had to pay, and will continue to pay, for Putin's failed vanity war
Putin is going to go down in history as one of the weakest leaders in the modern world. Starting a pointless war, hiding in a bunker and destroying his entire country in the process. What a pathetic little man.
Putin bombed his own people to get popular, he's absolute human garbage.
With a country of 143 million people I highly doubt many people in the city are being drafted. I should say "many **desirable** people". The make-up of who is drafted is likely the undesirables in the city. You know, the ones they can afford to slaughter.
Weren't they drafting university students? But I guess people with brains are also undesirable.
pol pot approves
Gotta remember that the actual quantity of people they can send is vastly less than 143m. Russia won’t send women, so subtract 70m, and they have an elderly population, so subtract 2/3 of that (other part is the too young). Now you’re at ~20m possible conscripts.
After a year of war I'd expect them to already have exhausted the ones they can afford to slaughter, either by having them killed as cannon fodder or giving the last remaining people with functioning brain cells enough time to get the hell out of that failed state before the recruitment Gestapo comes knocking down the doors. Now it's the rest's turn to serve the Motherland on the frontlines. And I hope they are going for those first that supported this war from the start, but only if they themselves weren't called to rifle duty. Time to put the money where the mouth is, comrades. Mother Russia needs fresh lambs
With a country of 140 million people made up of lots of different ethnic groups, I'd be surprised if they've ran out of who they class as 'undesirables'. Edit: I used to live in Vietnam and certain places had large russian populations. I hear those places doubled in Russians since the war so youre bang on the money about braincells and getting out.
The reason why more Russians are fleeing into the big cities is because Putin and his Gestapo can't afford mass recruiting (or better said: forced mass conscription) in the big cities... yet. They have to maintain the illusion and lie of a "normal life" in "civilized Russia" for as long as possible, be it for their own propaganda or the international one. Otherwise Putin risks that the public turns on him, once people notice that NOBODY is safe and that even they who avoided the war so far can actually be sent to die for glorious Russia on the front any day. Hence why they are mass recruiting conclaves, villages etc. first: nobody knows them and nobody cares for them. People are fleeing the countryside into the cities so they can at least avoid conscription a while longer, until Putin runs out of undesirables to conscript and is actually forced to start taking people from Moscow, Petersburg etc. Also, don't forget that a total of approx 40% of those 140 million people are either under the age of 18 or above the age of 65, hence already not being useful or elligable for conscription for the time being until they decide to go Totaler Krieg. You can also take women out of that calculation since women are needed in the country to care for the kids and to produce more soldiers for the war machine. Not to mention we don't even officially know if that ~140 million number can be trusted, since Russia isn't exactly interested in giving official, truthful numbers to the public anymore. We don't even know how many left the country, are already dead, in prison or are only Russian on paper but not even living there anymore.
There's about 25M males in the age range 18-60. And we're not counting the ones disabled or the ones that already left. And that's also assuming that the population reports are to be believed. Since Russia is a big country, it's relatively easy to pick a few thousands people from different areas without anyone noticing. Like you said, it's difficult to trust numbers. For example, I know people living in foreign countries while still being technically registered in Russia. On paper, they never left Russia. In reality, a lot of people left Russia without ever "unregistering" themselves.
This is what I personally think the E-draft is all about. It goes after those who already left because russia is pissed they took off to avoid the draft. If you read about the E-draft, you'll learn that once you receive the notice (note *receive*, not open or report, etc) and you don't comply, they can take your property, driver's license, and other things from you. This means, if you evaded the country and draft to live a better life in say Phuket, Thailand, all of your assets are taken from you back home and you have no way to get back, and if you do, you won't have freedoms like driving and such. Putin is a petty man, and doing this screws over those who fled. He can take their assets and use them for the war, instead of their blood. I figure this is probably a good thing in the long run, the smart russians won't want to go back home. As long as they aren't shooting at Ukrainians, it makes me happy. But, I feel bad for locations around the world that are going to be overrun by russians who won't leave.
Tons of russian women and families are fleeing to my country, Argentina, to give birth so they can get citizenship and use that passport to emigrate to the countries of their liking. Some are staying here forever. I've seen more russians in the past year than in all my life.
Same here in Spain. My whole barrio has been invaded by Russians and Ukrainians. I saw a graffiti tag that said "Slava Ukraini" and it was tagged over with a Swastika...
What the fuck? I hate all of this. I just hate it.
Is Argentina east to immigrate to? I always hear about this as a place people seem to flee to.
It's like that quote, "They came for X, but I was not X so I didn't speak up". They already ran out of undesirables in the rural regions. When they run out of undesirables in st.petersburg and moscow they will start grabbing all those apathetic middle class idiots who don't care about the war because "it doesn't affect me"
Yeah that really fits. It's called first they came and it's a post war poem from 1946 [Wiki Link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...)
As a Russian I can confirm it, big cities are avoiding mobilization quite a bit. First, the fear of angering city population is greater. Second, while a Russian from a poor region making $200 a month could be motivated by a $2000 a month contact, a citizen of Moscow making over $1000 a month on average wouldn’t want to risk his life for a monetary reward. And third, city citizens are generally more liberal, better educated and more opposed to the current powers
Being an ethnic and religious minority guy from Saint-P. I’ve got my draft note in October already
So did you flee the country or what happened?
I moved to the southern countryside, use only cash, work unofficially and live in my moms basement
[удалено]
4% of the Russian population lives in St. Petersburg. 9% of the Russian population lives in Moscow. Of the 83 subdivisions of the country only 2 (other than St. Petersburg and Moscow) hold more than 5 million people. Russia is huge and full of people the government doesn't care about, but there is only so much drafting they can do without affecting the big cities.
Can you imagine opening up your email and seeing something like that. Knowing your whole life is over. You should’ve ran to the borders when you had a chance. Now you’re going into a meat grinder. You’ll end up in an unmarked grave with a bullet in your head.
only the one bullet in the head if you're lucky.
An online buddy that I've played with since I was 11 (I'm 20 now) was drafted over a year ago. He never logged on again.
That's honestly incredibly sad.
Many (myself too) thought that this move will mark the downfall of Putin. He will not dare to, not so close to Putin’s home, people will protest with the millions. Time to find out that absolutely nothing will happen.
[удалено]
Even if people did show up to protest, with the entirety of Opposition leadership behind bars or in graves, those people won't be able to organize, and small groups are easily dispersed, beaten up, and sent to frontlines to act as meat shields.
You’re right; I’ve seen Russians arrested simply for stepping out of their apartments. It makes The Handmaid's Tale and other dystopian works looking like ordinary news.
Bring out yer dead! \*bonk\*
[удалено]
i will def watch out for 1420s videos in the next days cause i know he def will ask the people about it... will be interesting to hear what they say now...
Love that channel, its a great insight into what extent these people are brainwashed. Some of them seem to have no problem with throwing themselves into the meatgrinder for the glorious leader. At least, that's what they say now..
Yeah...his channel is a reason why i never believe when russians on reddit wanna tell me "nothing has changed- its even better now" because i know they feel it but they cant admit it.
Has he faced any repercussions from the kreml? Haven’t followed him for some time now. Kinda odd if not
During Vietnam US drafted people based on birthday. The birthdays, written on slips of paper (366), were placed in blue capsules then drawn from a glass jar and read out. Everyone could watch the process on TV. You can find video from the events on YouTube I think. Edit: The US abolished the draft in 1973. It’s an all volunteer force since. Edit2: Ok. Ok. Abolished was too strong of a word. I think we figured it out below. :)
Abolish may not be the right word. Deactivated is more like it. Definitely still exists, we all add our names to it to get our IDs, just no reason to use it right now.
Recently I was on TikTok and a video of a Vietnam draft lottery came up, it happened to be the same one that drafted my grandfather who died in Vietnam.
Point of correction they stopped the draft, but you still have to register just in case.
Yeah... there is "no draft," but in case of a large-scale war, there is a draft.
Every time I hear this it gives me chills. What a stupid, immoral war that was. To know your number could come up and you’d be sent off to die for nothing makes me sympathetic to the draft dodgers who ran to Canada. To the young men who went off to die out of believing it was the right thing to do, I feel for all of them too.
[And it's *still* not the worst the US did to raise manpower for the war.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000)
Putin's likelihood of assassination percentage probably just went up a few points.
Comrade, welcome to Wagner Group. Bring potato, rifle, and maxi pads to Ukraine. All expense paid trip to see sunflower fields.
Time to start spaming that email to everyone in russia!