Putin not only uses the Russian army in the aggressive war in Ukraine. Among other things, police units of the National Guard are to fight in the neighboring country according to the will of the Kremlin. But some relatives refuse – and therefore lose their jobs.
In the Russian North Caucasus, 115 national guards have refused to be deployed in the war against Ukraine. However, this earned them a dismissal, which was declared lawful by a military court, according to information on Thursday. This was reported by the Interfax agency from Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic.
The National Guards reportedly refused to obey orders and returned to their barracks. When their contracts were subsequently terminated, they sued, but lost the case. The verdict is not yet legally binding. According to media reports, 15 members of the OMON police unit have also lost their jobs in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar. They had been on an exercise in Crimea in February and had refused to be deployed in the war against Ukraine.
In addition to the regular army, the Russian leadership is also sending units of the National Guard into the “military special operation,” as the war is officially called. The National Guard was created in 2016. It is a gendarmerie reporting to President Vladimir Putin, actually for internal use. The police unit OMON was incorporated into the National Guard.
In all units there is a high proportion of young men from the particularly poor regions of Russia. This also includes Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan in the Caucasus or Buryatia in Siberia. For these men, the army or the police are often the only prospect of a job. According to experts, these peripheral republics are also disproportionately affected by the Russian dead and wounded in the Ukraine war.