Russian President Vladimir Putin had met with mothers of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine on Friday, but an investigation by a military historian reveals the meeting was staged.
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In front of the cameras, Putin had assured “to share the pain” of these women, but according to Cédric Mas, president of the Action Resilience Institute, “most of the women invited […] would be ministry employees, actresses and even elected officials of the Putin regime”.
Supporting evidence, the historian shows the example of a woman present at the meeting who had brandished the portrait of her son killed in Ukraine. The only problem, old images show that the man was killed long before the start of the Russian invasion, in 2019, in the separatist region of Luhansk.
Among the other women around the table, the French media BFMTV highlights the presence of the president of a pro-Putin association, Nadezhda Uzunova as well as a member of the “United Russia” party, Olga Beltseva.
In September, during the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Moscow, Uzunova was present at the celebrations in Red Square where she gave a patriotic speech.
“Our soldiers must protect us and we mothers must be united in the rear to promote victory,” she said.
AFP
Mothers of Russian soldiers and mobilized citizens have been outraged in recent weeks that their son was “ill-prepared and under-equipped” on the battlefield.
Listen to the interview with Dominique Arel, holder of the chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa on the Mario Dumont show via :
These disgruntled women did not receive the president’s call, despite all their efforts.
“Why didn’t they invite all the women who made videos to complain? There are at least fifty of them, bring them to Moscow!”, affirmed the president of an NGO in Russia.
The NGO behind the “Committee of Russian Soldiers’ Mothers” also denounces the fact of not being informed of the situation of their son sent to combat.
