I can neither confirm nor deny that certain regions trained and armed volunteer battalions but didn't send them to war. They make zero PR, so local pro-war community is surprised, interpreting this silence as a PR failure. These regions are Russian btw, not ethnic republics
"Russian" in this context means = perceived as Russian, especially outside of Russia
I have no information about the military buildup in the ethnic republics though. That's understandable: they're constantly lowkey suspected in separatism, so are being watched closely by Kremlin. Most probably no "ethnic" region will have anything like its own army anytime soon
Chechnya may be the only exception. During this war Kadyrov managed to increase the size of his land army dramatically, recruiting there tons of ethnic Russians, etc. Now he calls for quartering air defense system in a few dozens kilometres from Hosi Yurt
novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/…
Hosi Yurt is an interesting place. The monumental arc on the right is the entrance
See this red ligt? It's always red, 24/7 and in both directions. Hundreds of cars pass there daily - on a red light. I think it would be a good start for a discussion on Chechnya, some next time
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