Chelyabinsk City Hall representatives reached out to the wives of the mobilized recruits and suggested organizing a meeting with the members of a draft board and the local “Combat Brotherhood” office instead of a protest rally.
Employees of the Chelyabinsk mayor’s office invited the wives of the conscripted men to meet representatives of a military enlistment office and the local “Combat Brotherhood” division. The assembly is scheduled for November 14. The wives of the mobilized recruits decided that about 10 people would represent them at the gathering. They will prepare questions in advance to pass them to the officials the day before the meeting.
The authorities promised to assist the Chelyabinsk women in arranging a meeting with the region’s governor, Alexei Teksler, if communication with the mayor’s office and the draft board employees does not yield results. They asked the activists not to expect “anything extraordinary” from the conversation at the city hall.
Earlier, Telegram channels spread information about the wives of the conscripted men who are planning to go out to protests and demand the return of their husbands. The military relatives channel “Put’ Domoy” (“The Way Home”) called the information about the rally cancellation “incorrect”. At the same time, the post authors admitted that the demonstration was “possibly postponed” for the sake of “the meeting with the governor and military commissars”.
Vladimir Putin declared mobilization in Russia on September 21, 2022. A year later, the wives of those mobilized began to demand that the authorities send the men back home. For example, in the Yaroslavl region, more than 100 women called on the local governor to ask Putin and the Ministry of Defense to set clear terms of service for conscripted men The same demands were made by residents of the Leningrad, Rostov and Belgorod regions. Andrei Gurulev, a member of the defense committee, reacted by saying that the rotation of mobilized personnel is impossible.
On November 7, several wives of the conscripted men went out on pickets insisting on the return of their husbands from the front. After this, relatives of the war participants expressed their intention to hold similar actions in other Russia regions. The rallies are expected to take place on November 19.
