Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Cullis
It's interesting to note that apart from the 1st Tank Army and 45th Spetsnaz Brigade, most of the RU forces in UA are NOT from Moscow or other rather more enlightened areas. Instead RU is throwing in troops from the far east and the boondocks.
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Of course. Young men from Moscow/SPb will have better things to do with their life than get killed in Ukraine - even if they support the war. Most of the troops come from depressed areas where people have no economic prospects. They can spend their life working on a farm or a sawmill for 300-500 USD per month, or they can sign an army contract and get ten times that, for the time they survive. And if they die, well, their family gets a compensation payout and can buy a brand-new Lada.
The Russian authorities remember the wars they lost very well (Afghanistan, the First Chechen War), and know that they can only maintain a high level of public support as long as most of the civilian public can tell themselves that only their neighbors will be impacted, not they themselves. They are too smart to get caught up in it, they won't sign a contract, or will pay a bribe to avoid conscription... The rulers are only in danger when they have to introduce general mobilization and everyone's got a chance of being thrown into a meatgrinder for no good reason.
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