Moscow Orders Russians To War But Protects Its Own Residents – OpEd
By Paul Goble
Since Vladimir Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the media has been filled with stories showing that people from the regions and republics, largely because of poverty or political pressure, have been sent to war and die in disproportionate numbers.
Indeed, there has been a veritable cottage industry of coverage about how the war is hitting smaller communities far harder than it is hitting large ones, including the ethnic Russians. But new statistics show that those who live in Moscow are far less likely to fight and die in Ukraine than others.
According to Poteru.net/, which has compiled a list of combat losses, more than 31,000 people from Russia have died in Ukraine; but only 120 of the names on the list are from the city of Moscow (thebarentsobserver.com/ru/obshchestvennost/2023/09/agressiya-moskvy-unosit-vse-bolshee-chislo-korennyh-zhiteley-rossiyskoy).
Figures for other, much smaller Russian cities are much larger. Arkhangelsk, for example, has 247 combat deaths listed. If Moscow were equally well represented on that listing, it would nearly 3,000 dead. That it doesn’t is just one more indication that the war being fought for Moscow is being paid for by the rest of Russia.
