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Not surprising given that they'd probably want to flee the country to escape being sent to Ukraine. Still a sign of weakness though.

All the ones who can run have already fled

Then they can't send them to Ukraine, which is another country

Your life is mine.

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This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 70%. (I'm a bot)

> Starting from 9 January, Russia has restricted conscripts from leaving the country, even those who are only partially fit for military service.

> "The possibility of leaving the country at all checkpoints in all directions will be closed for the departure of the specified categories of citizens."

> Details: At the same time, as follows from the text of the order, citizens who fall into the C category, that is, those who are unfit for military service, will also be banned from leaving the country.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: category^#1 country^#2 military^#3 service^#4 Russian^#5

And so the Iron Curtain falls once again.

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Basically everyone in Russia is now a conscript.

> Russia will restrict travel outside the territory of the Russian Federation for citizens who have a statement declaring their readiness for military service from categories A, B and C [category A means fit for military service without any restrictions on the type of unit, category B foresees military service with minor restrictions, and category C means physically unfit for military service, however such individuals can be conscripted during wartime – ed.],"

This should clue Russian citizens that their government elites and Putin explicitly view citizens as war fodder. Yikes.

How do you fall for very simple lies from this website every day?

Or Belarus

Group C - unfit to serve, so secretaries, housekeepers, etc? Or does that just mean - no guns? Weird.

...Unless they're hockey players.

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it has begun

If its about paper that i saw in telegram it is like 99% fake - people pointing out weird order of regions and ;| symbols printed out in one line like someone took a photo from a monitor.

500,000 “it’s not my problem” people are gonna get very nervous soon 🤣

Not really. The telegram channel that monitors border crossings does not contain a single report of border crossing denial as of now.

if your conscripts can't leave the country how are they meant to go and fight in Ukraine?

taps forehead

Russian-made helmet instantly crumples

First time hearing this as a russian. I'd wait for more credible source

Does Russia have any credible sources?

I wish to hope there are some

Edit. By credible I meant something like belingcat and such

Hence why Putin announced the annexation of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in his super duper totally for real referendum.

Conscripts were never legally speaking supposed to be used outside of Russia, and by changing what is Russia, Putin got what he wants without needing to change what a "conscript" is.

Same. I’m kinda surprised pravda.com.ua articles are posted and heavily upvoted here on daily basis despite being just rumors/propaganda.

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They'll be fighting in "Russia", the parts of Ukraine that Putin annexed with his fake referendum that are actually only half controlled by Russia. It's doubtful these conscripts will step foot in the non-annexed part of Ukraine for the rest of the war.

They already thought of the counter propaganda. They decided part of Ukraine were actually independent therefore they can send a whole lot of "armed tourists" there.

The rifle-to-soldier ratio is considerably lower.

russias a joke

I know one that fled and is still pro government lol

Ye, gotta use that noggin'

>They decided part of Ukraine were actually independent

No, they decided part of Ukraine is now part of Russia so technically the conscripts are not leaving russian territory.

Only if they're poor and/or an ethnic minority.

Yea, you can go and ask your local recruitment office. Don’t forget to take tampons and large garbage bag with you

To be fair here in Finland we use a similar classification system. It is only relevant for military service.

What Russia is doing here is basically restricting travel for anyone who has completed their military service or deemed unfit for it. So most men probably.

Are you safe?

Are you still in Russia?

Is there a way you can avoid joining the army?

Oh shit, I always thought the referendum was a sham! Gosh darrnit, now I don't know what to think!

Apparently more folk now from Moscow and St.Petes. We'll see

I always make a point to ask regular Russians -- what's the atmosphere like in there? Our window to Russia is pretty limited and it's hard to gauge the situation based solely on news articles.

How have you been faring?

Mr Putin, tear down this wall! We made you do it once, we'll make you do it again. And the longer you put it off, the less pleasant it is going to be for you, personally.

I like it. Can’t invade any country but your own! This will drastically cut down the amount of foreign aid Ukraine needs.

Good thing I’m in group D

That does seem to cover everyone doesn't it.. Do they even have a category D?

The other day I was wondering how many groups have stolen a lot of gear and disappeared east into the wilderness of Russia.

Except that there are no restrictions?

This is fake.

Yes, there are fears of it happening and such order may emerge any day, but there are no signs of any of that happening now.

Im sure you Category C equivalent would only happen if you were invaded no?

Pretty much. In peace time it's more like a "get out of military service" card.

Every men. Women are not.

"No more Bs, sir." "Send in the Cs; and draft all children aged 10 to 17 while we're at it"

Which means their only way out now is to escape across a remote unguarded section of the border.

Proof that Putler plans is to start WW3.

Dead.

Ukrainians think that all Russian thugs/NAZIS in Ukraine are outside Russia.

Agafia's cabin about to get packed.

Damn the other day I read a comment from a person in Russia that claimed he had exempt status from joining the military. He did say though that he never did his mandatory service because of ailment but it looks to me that he could be conscripted.

Give it time.

There's D for completely exempted from conscription due to chronic heavy diseases and things like blindness and missing limbs.

"Updated: Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian dictator, later claimed that the information about the ban was untrue: "This is a common act of information sabotage." Earlier, it was reported that the Russian Federation was preparing for a new wave of mobilisation. It will take about two months to equip and initially train the "replenishments"."

Sounds like they took a different route

Im still in Russia and I'm fine overall but got wrecked mentally from reading news and especially comments over the year. When it comes to army - never served due to health issue so im not in priority. If it comes and I get drafted idk, will go to jail I guess. But then again it's easy to be a keyboard warrior so idk.

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How is the situation in grocery stores?

Is there enough food for everyone?

Can you buy stuff you need on a daily basis?

How is the mood in the general public?

How do teenagers deal with the sanctions and the loss of certain brands or fast food chains?

Can you still access all internet sites or is there a regulation?

Can you watch news on TV or is it controlled by the Kreml?

If their citizens cared Putin would not be around still. They allow him to live and use their children as meat grinders.

We know you're unfit for war but we're gonna send you anyway.. This is how Russia fights wars though, throw bodies at it

What ever happened to the guy that was supposed to join the PHL Flyers and was kidnapped in a van outside a russian practice facility a few days before he was due to leave? Is he still MIA?

Before the war everyone deemed category C as a way to avoid the mandatory 1 year of military service. Unfortunately, individuals with Category C were and are conscripted during the mobilization (conscription) since September when Putin made it mandatory for everyone from the military reserve.

It's true that they tried to constript many people from the poor regions or the regions where most of the people are the ethnic minorities. Although, people from the major cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, were and are still conscripted in large quantities since September. It is just men from the major cities are more likely to be educated and informed, so it is harder for the military offices to find them and force them to join the army. For example, one official accidentally said that the plan for the mobilization in Moscow was not even half completed.

Secretaries and housekeepers are privileged positions these days. If you are a cannon meat, nobody cares about your health, you're given a simple gun and ordered to run forward to the enemies' position.

>How is the situation in grocery stores?
>
>Is there enough food for everyone?
>
>Can you buy stuff you need on a daily basis?
>
>Yes to all of this, you can still get all of you daily needs easily. There are some brands that have left or are getting harder to find, but there are alternate brands, and a lot of the brands that left were not considered "daily necessity" type things anyway, but more "middle class nice to have" brands.
>
>
>
>How is the mood in the general public?
>
>Dumb as fucking shit and in denial about everything and still believe putin is a good guy, did so many great things, NATO hates us, we strongk, everything is fine. A few starting to wonder like why do they need to mobilize if everything is fine? Where are the initial people? but for the most part still align with the "eh whatever, they must have had a reason to invade" line of thought. This is 30s-40s age bracket. They do however have markedly less smugness and bravado about everything compared to the beginning of the war, so deep down I guess they know they are losing, even if they end up "winning" after 10 years of lobbing bombs or something.
>
>How do teenagers deal with the sanctions and the loss of certain brands or fast food chains?
>
>Teenagers don't have the capital spending and market influence that they have in the US. For clothing, it's not a big deal. Knockoff sportswear is super common and not looked down on, it's just some clothes that people pick because they like the color of the sweatsuit or whatever (and it's not just like nike or adidas, I see supreme and off white knock offs daily). Most people couldn't afford new iphones or samsungs so enough can be roundabout imported to support the market for those. Most people use chinese brands' smartphones and a lot of older people still have flip phones. Noone cares about the fast food chains leaving because they have been replaced and are nearly identical in flavor as most of the food supplies were from in the country anyway and people are too dense to realize it's not the loss of the cuisine that would be the issue it's the loss of foreign investment. Also, fast food is definitely not the cheapest meal out option, so it is again a middle class nice to have thing rather than a basic meal for people on a budget. Prices for electronics went up really steeply at teh beginning of the war.
>
>Can you still access all internet sites or is there a regulation?
>
>There was never a time when you could access all internet sites for at least a few years. VPNs are common knowledge amongst younger people. Older people feel like they can find anything they need because they have been primed to poorly adapt to changing info spaces and also to believe that every other country is just as censored and has as much government media control and bias (or usually even more).
>
>Can you watch news on TV or is it controlled by the Kreml?
>
>TV is 100% controlled. They have been prepping minds and romanticizing war for a while. There are a bunch of channels that play movies by genre, think romance channel, comedy channel, etc. For a few years there have been channels that play exclusively war movies (and it's called "victory channel) and exclusively movies make nostalgia of life in the USSR or life in small cut off rural villages. NEVER anti-war movies like come and see. Always some crap like a romance story in the time of war. A few "safe" channels are the zoo channel, the kids channel, and the space channel. I havent had a chance to see if disney, paramount, and some other western production company channels still work in a while as I don't know anyone who has extended channel packages or whatever to get special channels.

Thank you very much about the detailed answer. Looks like the sanctions are not affecting the citizen as much as they were supposed to.

Two more questions:

How is the Covid situation?

How does the government explain soldiers not coming home?

There's a lot of them, most of the Russians who fled didn't do it to protest the war, they just didn't want to be sent there themselves. If Russia wins most of them will come back waving Russian flags and wearing "Z" t-shirts

no problem. I think the sanctions weren't really designed to affect citizens as much as industry. For things like ikea, adidas, mcdonalds, disney, etc leaving the country, it was mostly an "image" thing but also tied to the banking sanctions making payments / profits more difficult to move in / out of the country around to different branches of the company and so on. The biggest effects I have noticed is definitely on cars. Once the lots are cleared you will need to go to another country to buy a car that is not a russian or chinese brand. Also parts for those korean, japanese, etc cars that already exist are getting squeezed and drying up.

Transferring money out of the country or paying for goods in another currency (like to buy something from europe and have it shipped) is very difficult to impossible for the average person. Alot of companies that used to ship wordwide now do not ship to russia.

Covid - I actually have no idea what the situation is like. I haven't seen much coverage of it. I would extrapolate from what I see about China having an outbreak and the new variant in the US that there is probably a covid season occurring, but maybe a little less severe since there's way fewer people traveling? Right now there are no covid restrictions / mask requirements, but a small few people do opt to wear them, esp now in winter cause it keeps your face warm anyway if outside from place to place. For the initial covid times, people wore masks and vaccines and boosters were free and easy to get. bigger cities required QR codes to prove vaccination and be allowed into non-necessity, high traffic areas. For example, my local mall has an Auchan (walmart grocery type store). Teh QR code scanner people were arranged so that you could go into the mall and enter the Auchan with no code check, but to go into the walkways to get to any other store you needed a QR code. most stand alone stores in the ground floors of apartments did not bother checking qr codes, even if they were inessential stores. The vaccination rate was low because a lot of people were superstitious about it and there was a lot of sanitation theater with like steaming railings in the communal stairways of buildings and stuff like that. I cant remember if they required the QR code on trains from city to city, I'm inclined to say no because I think i used one before I got my QR code (I was vaccinated in russia, but am not from russia so it was a little bit of beauracratic legwork to get me a QR code even after I had the booster).

Soldiers not coming home- Simply put, they dont. There will occasionally be profile pieces on a soldier who died about how they are a hero and show their family, sad but proud or whatever but there is not a consolidated story about how many aren't coming home. Comments in local news sites on such stories about people who died have started to turn mostly negative saying things like "and for what?". You also rarely see stories about soldiers who do come home as I imagine it's hard to get a feel good vibe from most of them for obvious reasons. The few I have seen involve people that were maimed and it highlights the help and rehab they are receiving (like some artificial limb etc.) and they seem to be trying to saying "see, we will take care of you!".

Thank you very much for those details! We only ever get information third or fourth hand, this is actually a nice documentary about the true situation.

Do you consider to start an AMA sometime?

I can imagine people have questions and would want to understand what is really going on inside Russia.

Thanks again!