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Putin’s problems
Russian families bade tearful farewells to thousands of sons and husbands abruptly summoned for military duty as part of President Vladimir Putin’s new mobilization.
But there were growing signs of increased public pushback against Putin and his war, despite the Kremlin’s harsh crackdown on dissent. In the city of Togliatti, a local military recruitment office was set on fire.
Russia’s war hawks on the far right, meanwhile, had a different cause for fury: a prisoner exchange that freed commanders from Ukraine’s controversial Azov Regiment, long branded by Russia as “Nazis.”
The dual backlash over mobilization and the prisoner exchange showed Putin facing his most acute crisis since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Not only is his country grappling with punishing economic sanctions imposed by the West, but his military has suffered dramatic setbacks, including an embarrassing retreat from the northeastern Kharkiv region.
With his options diminishing, Putin has made increasingly perilous decisions that could turn the Russian public against the war. He recently voiced support for steps toward annexing four Ukrainian regions that he does not fully control, which risks fierce fighting and further humiliation. He also made a thinly veiled threat this week that Russia could use nuclear weapons.
Putin has relied on public apathy to continue his war. But his mobilization, which is supposed to call up at least 300,000 reservists, will force many more Russians to confront the brutal reality of the conflict in Ukraine. – Robyn Dixon, Mary Ilyushina and David L. Stern  Ukrainian citizens living in Mexico demonstrated outside the Russian Embassy to repudiate the actions taken by the Eurasian country to intervene in the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in alleged defense against OTAN. (Photo by Guillermo Gutiérrez/NurPhoto via Getty Images) 
Read on: Putin faces fury in Russia over military mobilization and prisoner swap |
