Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The Russian army is planning to deal more harshly with dissent and indiscipline from mobilised soldiers by establishing military prisons at bases where the mobilised are being trained and accommodated. ⬇️

2/ Russia's Central Military District has instructed training units to establish detention facilities for personnel who are being disciplined. The move is in response to a request from State Duma deputy Maksim Ivanov, an ex-GRU member, who has taken a hard line on discipline.

3/ As the 7x7 Horizontal Russia Telegram channel reports, in December Ivanov wrote to the Central Military District demanding that it lock up "those mobilized military personnel who "sow discord or behave in an impertinent manner".

4/ On his own Telegram channel, Ivanov writes that "for every hundred honest and decent mobilisers there will always be one figure who sows confusion or behaves in an unconventional manner. They should be put under lock and key."

5/ Ivanov previously highlighted several alcohol-related deaths at the Elani training centre and complained that "the problem of drinking alcohol in the training center has not been resolved." He campaigned to get the sale of alcohol banned near the base.

6/ He blamed "30 year olds who are 'mama's boys' and 'wimps' who are just like women. Infantile, slack-jawed, arrogant freeloaders who only give-give-give, booze and party, but when they take responsibility they go straight to the bushes. Fake men. They're in the minority.

7/ "But they're the noisiest. And they bring confusion."

Ivanov announced that discipline at Elani was being stepped up in response, and that "there will be no more babysitting."

8/ He also sees harsher discipline as the answer to problems at the front line. In November 2022, mobilised men from Irbit left the front because, as they told their wives, they were "abandoned without food, water or command" and risked dying of hunger.

9/ Ivanov reacted angrily, claiming that the men had got drunk and staged an attack before they abandoned their weapons, equipment and positions, and left 500 metres of the front line unguarded, putting their comrades elsewhere at risk.

10/ "I believe this is desertion and betrayal", he wrote, describing them as 'traitors'. "It should be dealt with severely. If this had happened in the early 90s in our GRU Special Forces brigade, they would have had their own heads twisted off for such 'performances'.

11/ "So much for these 'warriors'. Instead of solving problems themselves, man-to-man, they hid behind their wives' skirts."

The men were reportedly disciplined and sent back to the front line.

12/ It remains to be seen whether such measures will make much difference to problems at the front line, which are clearly more the result of bad logistics and non-existent leadership than poor discipline (see the thread below for an example).

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1615121139373690881

13/ The reintroduction of military prisons on Russian bases will for now be confined to the Central Military District, but it wouldn't be surprising if the Russian army also decided to establish formal detention facilities in occupied Ukraine.

14/ Up to now, the army has been illegally throwing retreating mobiks into improvised prisons in basements and cellars, as the thread below illustrates. Recent reports have suggested that most of those so imprisoned have been released.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1599689921375002629

15/ The army has likely been embarrassed by the complaints of soldiers and their relatives about their illegal detentions, which have been widely publicised. The establishment of military prisons may be the first step towards regularising military detentions. /end

Sources:
🔹 t.me/horizontal_rus…
🔹 t.me/maksim_ivanon/…
🔹 t.me/maksim_ivanon/…
🔹 t.me/maksim_ivanon/…

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1615263…