America should reach out to children of Russia’s elites

Excerpt

As the Russian military expands — to 1.5 million troops, according to the Russian defense ministry, or even 2 million, according to Ukrainian intelligence officials — you can be sure one group of Russians will remain exempt: children of the elite. Indeed, the first 11 months of Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression have exposed more clearly than ever Russia’s extreme class disparities, as poor regions and ethnic minorities are reeling from war casualties while young professionals in Moscow and St. Petersburg escape largely unscathed.

It’s a pattern that is well documented but not sufficiently well known — and one the U.S. should do far more to publicize.

Consider what occurred in September, when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the Kremlin’s plan to mobilize 300,000 reservists. While he promised to recruit only men who previously served in or were affiliated with the military, the mobilization disproportionately targeted inmates and ethnic minorities. Independent journalists in Russia have reported, for example, that Buryatia, a poor region in Siberia, received thousands of draft notices despite its relatively small population. In Crimea, 80 percent of the mobilization draft papers were sent to Crimean Tatars, although this minority group makes up less than 20 percent of Crimea’s population.