Russia Paying Off Soldiers' Wives to Avoid Protests: UK

The disgruntled wives of Russian troops serving in Ukraine are being targeted by the Kremlin as it seeks to stamp out dissent about its full-scale invasion, British defense officials have said.

Over the course of the war that Vladimir Putin started in February 2022, there have been numerous reports of low morale among Russian troops who have complained about poor equipment and training.

There have also been growing appeals from relatives for Russian troops to be rotated and brought back home. The Council of Mothers and Wives, comprised of relatives of mobilized Russians, has repeatedly condemned the war. Newsweek contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email on Saturday.

In November 2022, the wives of Russian soldiers went to the border with the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. They demanded to take their husbands home because the men had been wounded on the frontline, the independent Russian news outlet The Insider reported.

Last month, spouses and relatives of Russian soldiers risked the wrath of law enforcement by holding a short-lived protest in Moscow before it was dispersed, as they demanded their loved ones be returned home.

Soldiers' relatives, actively demanding that their men be allowed home, published an appeal on the Telegram channel The Way Home on November 27, which said that the Russian public "got screwed."

In September 2022, Putin announced a partial mobilization aimed at boosting troop numbers, using 300,000 reservists and ex-military personnel with certain military specialties and relevant experience. However, as the RAND Corporation think tank said in June, Russian troops have not been allowed to leave the military since Putin's decree.

The post on the Way Home condemned how "our loved ones were taken to Ukraine," despite Putin's promises that reservists would not be called up. "Many will never return. Mobilization turned out to be a terrible mistake," the statement said.

However, the Kremlin is responding to the increasing criticism, according to the British Ministry of Defense. In its daily update, the MOD on Saturday said that the group was given a fake warning label, "likely at the instigation of pro-Kremlin actors."

This was part of a ploy by Russian authorities in "attempting to quash public dissent" from the angry wives by trying to pay them off and discrediting them online.

"Research by independent Russia media outlets and comments by protesting wives themselves suggest that, in recent weeks, the authorities have likely offered increased cash payments to families in return for them refraining from protest," the defense officials said.