The Russian president said the problems had apparently been accumulating for a long time
Men called up for military service during partial mobilization. © Sputnik/Alexander Kryazhev
The ongoing partial mobilization drive has seen its fair share of “stupidity” in terms of implementation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged. However, the authorities would never have learned of these issues had the call-up drive not been launched in late September, the president noted.
Speaking during a meeting with the governors of the Russian regions on Monday, Putin said: “Unfortunately, here, we have no shortage of stupidity.” He added, however, that had Moscow not declared the partial mobilization, “we would never have seen those problems that have accumulated there apparently for quite a while.” Putin concluded that the current situation presents a good opportunity to rectify those issues.
The partial mobilization was declared on September 21. Since then, there have been numerous reports of people without the relevant combat experience or skills being mobilized in various regions. In some cases, even people with medical conditions that prevent them from military service unless war is declared have ended up being drafted. All of this runs counter to the criteria laid out by Putin.
Some of the people who were wrongly mobilized were eventually returned home after their cases were covered by the media.
In late September, the governor of Russia’s Dagestan Region, Sergey Melikov, was caught on camera berating his subordinates for their overzealousness in carrying out the partial mobilization.
The official was apparently so infuriated that he used some very strong language during the meeting.
Melikov’s wrath was caused by reports of a police car driving around with a loudspeaker on and calling on all male residents of the city of Derbent to “urgently come” to the local military recruitment center.
The governor described the local authorities’ move as a case of “utter stupidity” and nothing short of “spreading fake information.”
“What f**king idiots are these?” Melikov inquired, referring to the Derbent city officials.
The Dagestan governor also posted a message on his Telegram channel apologizing to local residents and promising to punish those responsible.
Later on, the head of Derbent’s recruitment office recorded a video in which he also asked for forgiveness.
The city authorities explained that they had resorted to such an unconventional approach for lack of up-to-date data on Derbent’s male population in terms of health conditions and marital status.
