Originally published at: Secret video of barracks for Russian draftees: filthy, garbage-strewn, and overcrowded | Boing Boing
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filthy, garbage-strewn, and overcrowded
It’s like they’re being told flat out that they’re nothing more than cannon fodder.
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Pretty much. These are the guns they’re being given.
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In addition to being more evidence of the deep contempt the Kremlin holds for its soldiers, this really speaks to the complete lack of military discipline in the Russian Federation’s army. If they’re not ordered and trained to clean their bathrooms and otherwise police the barracks, there’s no way these units will hold together for very long under combat or occupation conditions.
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Looking at the hygiene conditions in those barracks reminds me that historically disease has been a bigger killer of soldiers than combat.
The obvious move in any army would be to order the new conscripts to clean things up, but I suspect the junior officers in charge are nervous about trying to enforce any such orders.
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Not enough junior officers available on top of not having an NCO class like many western militaries.
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I’m guessing COVID is still a thing there.
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It looks like a homeless encampment, only messier & dirtier!
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That is shocking. I’d expect something more like that in a makeshift encampment on the frontline, not on a home base. I wonder what conditions were like there prior to the invasion.
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And an undisciplined army is not just ineffective in combat conditions, it’s also more likely to commit war crimes. There have already been several documented cases of mass rapes committed against Ukrainian civilians by the (ostensibly) professional army units. And of course it doesn’t help that Russian military commanders haven’t exactly been stepping up to discourage such things either.
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If you listen closely, you can hear Army and Marine drill instructors have that forehead vein finally pop at the sight of the condition of those latrines, barracks, and rifles.
The solution for these problems are right in front of them.
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Never forget that Putin is the so-called tough guy that so many of your US Republicans were envying and cozying up to very recently - including your last president.
That video is what happens when you run a kleptocracy, every time. That is your US military after 40 years of kleptocracy, if they get the chance. And those are your children getting drafted to save face for the anointed god-king.
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…assuming there are even any cleaning tools and consumables (probably not).
Also, he did say ‘no water’.
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It won’t help that the state of logistics is apparently just that bad: you can’t blame rape and torture on inadequate rations; that’s some combination of bad discipline and brutality-as-policy; but when it comes to stealing every last bit of food, fuel, and medical supplies from whatever civilians are available to be preyed up on that’s both a discipline problem and something where you can’t realistically expect even the highest standards of discipline and professionalism to do the job if your supply lines aren’t up to delivering an alternative to starvation.
It will be(deeply morbidly) interesting to see if this goes extra badly given the…limited…odds that these new cannon-fodder units are going to be doing much decisive advancing. During the early phases the (allegedly more professional) Russian units were looting like crazy, some pure plunder and some more basic supplies; but that was back when they had access to new areas to plunder that had been captured in a hurry, hadn’t already been picked over; and in some cases weren’t yet familiar with Russian practice and so didn’t necessarily expect that they’d have to move, hide, or destroy anything they didn’t want stolen.
This round of reinforcements looks like it is on track to be less well disciplined, less well supplied; and also likely to be contained in territory that has already been significantly picked over(also, winter is coming). There are still enough civilians around for war crimes to be a serious concern; but I can’t imagine that there’s anywhere near enough loot remaining for even subsistence-level purposes.
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These barracks were probably disused before the mobilisation.
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These are supposedly military reservists who have done their compulsory military service. An unofficial motto of soldiers has long been, “any fool can be uncomfortable”, it is surprising that at least one or two of them would not take steps to make their situation better, but I expect part of this apathy is the demoralising effect of being mobilised at short notice and with so obviously little care.
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This makes me wonder if Putin hasn’t weakened and demoralized his military so much that Russia is at risk of being invaded.
It looks like we could freeze the army in place by cutting off vital tobacco supplies.
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Indeed. 300,000 is the stated number of new units. Who knows what the real number is? It’s got to be larger. When does Putin ever tell the truth?
Also, whats with this “partial” mobilization? Putin can sell that to Russians (and he has to, because a full mobilization triggers various legal consequences he’d rather not deal with), but this is a full mobilization (or as full as you get short of WW III). The Western news media should use the phrase “mobilization” and dispense with the “partial”.
And historically, “partial” Russian mobilizations don’t work out too well. WW 1 became inevitable when Czar Nicholas engaged a “partial” mobilization as a supposed stopgap to a full mobilization, triggering a full German mobilization in response.
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By whom?
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