1/ Russian schoolchildren in the Moscow region have been treated to a hands-on exhibition of military medicine, including amputated limbs and a blood-covered mannequin depicting a man with a mortar bomb embedded in his chest. ⬇️
2/ The 'Not the Norm' Telegram channel reports on a recent educational visit by children from Sosnovy Bor near Moscow to the 'Choice' youth centre, for a so-called 'Courage' lesson.
3/ After watching the Russian singer Shaman's patriotic song 'Let's Rise', the children toured the centre's Hall of Military Glory – a legacy of the Soviet Union's programme of military-patriotic education – before going on to see a recreation of the Kolomna Military Hospital.
4/ Here they dressed in mock surgical uniforms where they "were greeted by bloody mannequins imitating the work of surgeons, amputated limbs, a model of a wounded man with a shell in his chest, and various objects extracted from the bodies of military personnel,…
5/ … which were collected by surgeon N.K. Mitropolsky. in 1941-1945."
According to the centre's youth work specialist, "Visiting the interactive left a huge impression".
6/ Such visits are carried out as part of the Russian government's programme of patriotic indoctrination of children. This has seen, among other things, children practicing trench warfare, unarmed combat, laying mines, using weapons and applying field dressings. /end
1/ Last week's news that two Russian cannibals had been pardoned and sent to fight in Ukraine has highlighted the ongoing trend of convicted murderers being recruited for the Russian army or Wagner Group. At least 17 are known to have been released after fighting in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian outlet Agency. News has compiled a list of released murderers who have fought in Ukraine. Their pardons have caused great distress to relatives of the victims. Some of the killers have gone on to commit fresh crimes at home. Cases include:
3/ 🔺 Vladislav Kanyus, jailed for 17 years in 2022 for raping and strangling his ex-girlfriend. The police failed to respond to multiple calls from neighbours who heard her screams. He signed a military contract, served in Ukraine, survived and returned to Russia a free man.
1/ The recent bicycle-powered 'migrant invasion' on the Finnish border was reportedly ordered by Russian Presidential Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko and organised by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, but has failed to achieve its apparent objectives. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "Kiriyenko personally ordered ... Kolokoltsev to gather illegal immigrants from the Middle East, Africa, etc. in all centres for accommodating refugees and migrants."
3/ Bicycles were purchased through the state-owned VTB bank "for the future Tour de Helsinki, and outreach work was carried out among illegal immigrants, who, of course, wanted to get to Western Europe."
1/ The Kremlin has reportedly told regional governors to "extinguish with money" the protests of wives of mobilised soldiers ahead of next March's elections. It is said to believe that they are "often waiting not for their husbands from the war, but for their salary cards". ⬇️
2/ Verstka reports that nervousness in the Russian government about complaints from soldiers' wives has led to the presidential administration making recommendations to the country's regional governments. Relatives' protests have grown in recent months.
3/ According to sources, the administration has recommended that payments be made "fully, quickly and without red tape" and that existing public activists be involved in the "round dance around the mobilised".
1/ Relatives of mobilised Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine say their men call themselves slave warriors: they are exhausted, depressed, serving with serious diseases or injuries, equipped at their own expense, commanded by drunkards and sent to die in "meat assaults". ⬇️
2/ The relatives met on 19 November in a rare authorised rally at Novosibirsk's Palace of Culture. It was held indoors with attendance restricted only to relatives and without any media present, to avoid embarrassing the authorities.
3/ Nonetheless, as the Mobilisation News Telegram channel reports, a video and other details of what was discussed have been leaked. The channel lists the key points raised by the relatives:
1/ Under wartime pressure, Russian Railways is reportedly planning to conscript convicts to carry out heavy labour on the railway. Russia also faces a shortage of railway freight cars, as the manufacturers have been diverted into making tanks and troop-carrying wagons. ⬇️
2/ A leaked telegram issued by Russian Railways and published by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel instructs regional bodies to work with the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia to attract "contingents of convicts" to work on the railway, likely in the next few weeks.
3/ This is due to an acute shortage of personnel, which the state-owned operator attributes to the practical impossibility of recruiting men aged 30-39. The war economy (and likely competition from military recruitment) has made it hard to find new employees.
1/ A cannibal serial killer who is said to have murdered 13 people and filled his refrigerator with human flesh has been pardoned by Vladimir Putin and sent to fight in Ukraine. The decision has caused shock on Russian social media networks. ⬇️
2/ 44-year-old Denis Gorin from Aniva in the Sakhalin region has been tried three times for murder and cannibalism, most recently serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of three murders in 2018. He appears to have signed a contract recently with the Russian MOD.
3/ He was first sentenced in 2003 along with his older brother Evgeniy for killing and eating an acquaintance, and also trying to force his wife and younger brother to eat the dead man (though both refused).