Dozens of mobilised soldiers have staged an extraordinary mutiny against Vladimir Putin amid mounting unrest over the spluttering Ukraine invasion.
In footage taken inside a military camp, one uniformed conscript earns raucous cheers from his peers after suggesting soldiers should topple their leaders.
The unnamed reservist spoke about the lack of respect soldiers hold for Putin and his commanders, berating an unseen official for using threats to get people to join the cause.
He mocked a policy in his region – the Tuva republic in Siberia – to gift a ram to each family of those mobilised.
‘You give our families, children, a manky ram [sheep], and some groceries,’ he said, adding disparagingly: ‘What is this?’
‘If we didn’t go to Ukraine, they would jail us,’ a reservist said
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In footage taken inside a military camp, one uniformed conscript earns raucous cheers from his peers after suggesting soldiers should topple their rulers
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The unnamed reservist spoke about the lack of respect soldiers hold for Putin and his commanders, berating an unseen official for using threats to get people to join the cause
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The Kremlin is losing support from Russian soldiers at a rapid speed as the invasion of Ukraine continues to falter
In his heroic address – for which he could face severe punishment in Putin’s Russia – the reservist told his top brass officers ‘threatened us’ when they were drafted.
‘They told us that if we didn’t go there [to Ukraine], they would put us in jail,’ he said in his native Tuvan language.
‘They wouldn’t help our families, they would stop all payments… There are not enough walkie-talkies for our squads… How will we communicate [in the war zone]?’
He also joined a chorus of voices on the frontline complaining about the lack of suitable equipment and gear.
In the vision, the reservist said his group had not been given enough walkie-talkies and no adequate socks ahead of being sent 3,200 miles to fight for Putin.
‘These socks issued to us are of no use. We have already bought enough ourselves.’
In his heroic address – for which he could face severe punishment in Putin’s Russia – the reservist told his top brass officers ‘threatened us’ when they were drafted
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He also joined a chorus of voices on the frontline complaining about the lack of suitable equipment and gear
He ridiculed an army-issued foreign guitar when they are not supplied with adequate weapons.
‘They give us an [imported] guitar,’ he said to cheers from fellow conscripts. ‘Are we going to shoot a guitar on the battlefield?’
His outburst is all the more significant since his region is also the home of heavily-criticised Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Putin has steadfastly refused to fire despite strong demands for his head over the failure of the military campaign.
The reservist asked bluntly: ‘If there are no people like us, who will you be in authority over?
‘Who are you going to make all your speeches to?
Amid applause from the crowd, he said: ‘You no longer look like a source of power in our eyes. Perhaps we people should all get together and decide you are of no use.’
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His outburst is all the more significant since his region is also the home of heavily-criticised Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Putin has steadfastly refused to fire despite strong demands for his head over the failure of the military campaign
Tuva – an impoverished region – has suffered a high death toll during the war, far more than Moscow.
The region also saw protests – violently crushed by Putin’s law enforcement – over men being sent to the war.
Messages seen within a Telegraph channel said the Tuvan conscript also questioned whether it was worth tolerating their leaders when they treated conscripts so badly.
In late September, Putin announced 300,000 people with previous combat experience or specialist skills would be conscripted to the frontlines in Ukraine to help with the war.
Reports from dissenting voices out of Russia revealed pensioners, men with disabilities, and people without any military training or combat experience were receiving the call-up to fight on the frontlines.
Leaked complaints from new frontline arrivals in Ukraine reveal the ailing Russian army is struggling to keep their men clothed, fed and armed.
Often, conscripts are told they must by their own supplies, sending the cost of standard items like body armour, weapons and camping gear through the roof.
Body armour in Russia has soared to around £1,115 with a rucksack costing up to £560 and thermal underwear skyrocketing to more than £300.
yes they should refuse to fight and topple Putin too
I've updated this 18th March 2022
I'm Michael Casey from Birmingham England, the fat silver haired writer in shades.
Beware of Others with the EXACT SAME NAME, they are not me, and would not want to be me ...
use Google UK to find me, otherwise Posh Americans pop up
I've done loads of writing, about 2,000,000 Words worth over 34years now
But before I started to write, I LISTENED to BBC Radio 4 for 20 years,
from the age of 10 or younger
Frank Brown our lodger, went back to County Tyrone and he gifted us his Bush Radio.
He'd be nearly 100 now if he is still alive, so say a prayer for him
54 years in love with words, and I still look so dashing.
I have a picture in the attic, just like Dorian Gray
I've also had an interest in Politics for 54 years
with my dad heckling the tv and Politicians.
I almost immediately had a hit, a play called Shoplife was accepted but not finally
produced by a Theatre.
The Kenneth More Theatre, so thank them for sparing you all. This was back in 1989 yes, 30 years plus ago, the play was written in 1988. So since then I'm more than good enough, as a writer. Anything else.....
I also ignore those who just cannot write, pick your own candidate
I tend to write Comedy as I'd rather make you laugh than cry
I have written over 2000 short pieces of writing, yes 2000
" (c) by Michael Casey"
If you include "chats" 3700 samples, all told,
the chats do NOT go into my books when I compile them.
My first book ,a full length comedy/drama is The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
You can read translations of it here on this site
Up to 20 different languages/translations have been read on the same day
via this site, here on Wordpress look fo Translations Galore page, and more
And in over 90 Countries world wide too
so you have no excuse, find your own language
and read
The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
or Quick Stories or any other of the books in Translation on my Wordpress
This proves to me that the humour does travel
I have readers in over 100 countries now, just to repeat myself
From Nepal to American Samoa and all places North South East and West
Or its just a hit man on the run,
or whatever Unknown Region Means
It may also mean that only non English Speakers like my stuff
Coverage but lacking penetration as marketing folks might say
I did get 21,000 readers in 3 weeks for the Polish version of In Search of an Indian Princess.
which is basically the final 3 chapters of The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
all by word of mouth. And 50,000 plus in Christmas week 2021
If you add up all the downloads from my Wordpress + 13,000 when somebody stole the file.
I have had more copies than Boris Johnson's Churchill book distributed.
Maybe 40,000 copies .
Not made a penny from it, free downloads in multiple languages.
Reverse Logic, if the world knows me, eventually somebody will pay me
But in reality I'll be dead first, and then just 2 pennies to pay the ferryman is enough
I've cut the Plaudits, you can read/decide for yourself
As for my life, I was born in the shadow of a Brewery,
I was a computer operator for a market research company into alcohol sales,
21 years altogether, StatsMR
Call centre guy, like everybody once in their life
I was also a Trainee Betting Shop Manager
I was a concierge and 10 other roles at Crowne Plaza NEC Birmingham for 3 years.
Spent 3 years at Pinsent Masons Law firm in Birmingham
I even hid a copy of my comic novel "BBU" in the Law Library at Pinsent Masons, well just for a day..
I did a few other jobs too, working life in reverse so to speak
and I was an Esol English teacher in an Islamic school, for a year, I knew I could teach.
I got Excellent, Excellent and Exemplary on the external assessment, yes really
And I asked them to pray for me at least once a day
beside which I've had a Shanghai connection for 20 years now, including 2 bilingual daughters
and being a hausfrau a long time too, I'm a great dad, as I've had lots of time with my daughters
I can always make somebody talk or laugh
I believe my short stories could be used to teach English, just package them up correctly
or App them
Or a Tale a Day from Michael, a story telling App
What else, I was brawn and brains, I used to be as strong as an Ox, now I just smell like one
We have a cat called Totoro, my daughters wanted a pet I said they could have a dog if I died , or a cat if I had a heart attack. A few weeks after that in Jan 2015 I had an Unplanned Quadruple Heart Bypass , it was supposed to be a triple but it ended up a Quadruple, 33% extra free so to speak. Now with an add on Hernia, the size of your fist, pushing through my bypass scar, it hurts when I laugh, so don't make me laugh
I also have arthritis and other hindrances that hobble my body and give me pain galore.
But my mind is free, though having read my stories you may wish I didn't bother
But I'll ignore you, and carry on regardless. I do get heckled by my own Tinnitus these past
3 years+, so I have music on all night long to drown it out.
I sleep with Miley, Taylor, Eric Clapton and Will Young,
maybe I should buy a bigger bed, or just get a better mattress.
Tinnitus is a curse, just trust me I know, each day I wake up,
Tinnitus SCREAMS at me for a full hour till it calms down
That's the end of the tidy version of my life
To finish here's the list of my 20 books, so far:-
1.The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
2.Shoplife
3.Essays and Plays
4.Blogs 2011
5.300 and Not OUT
6.Shorts 2013
7.More Shorts 2014
8.Quick Stories
9.Still Alive 2015
10.Undiscovered Words 2016
11.Still Smiling 2017
12.Altogether Now
13.New Horizons
14.14 Up
15.15 Down
16.Sweet Sixteen
17. 17 Again
18. 18 New Views
19. The Final Cut of the 19th Hole
20. 2020 Words
21. 21 Door Keys, key to the door 21 on Bingo, hence title,
53,000 words so far
I write bullet point stuff mainly now as Tinnitus stops me from
getting in the zone to write, story stories. (c) by Michael Casey stuff
though my bullet points are better than some "writers" discuss, miaow.
That's why I dream of a speed typist, so I could dictate from the sofa
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC to buy ebooks
Loads of Korean and Arabic translations downloaded from my Wordpress, 1000s of them
Quick Stories in Korean is a big hit. Maybe Kim in North Korea should read my books, instead of wasting his countries resources on what? Just keeping one person in power, him? Instead of joining the real world and opening a string on golf courses. That way we could get rid of Trump too. Into the sunset, as they play golf.
Tears for a Butcher will be the sequel to BBU, and it too will be 600pages,
however I really need
a speed typist to put it down, while I sit and dictate like Barbara Cartland, and hopefully my speed typist would be impressed. we'd marry have half Korean kids, and form a Kpop band with our 4 new kids, with me as manager.
And yes this is more for my bucket list, as Tinnitus keeps me awake too much, 6 months of not sleeping till dawn is really killing me
Michael Casey
aka the fat silver haired writer in shades from Birmingham England
https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/efda2dca0de5b9269191b7c8b0102473?s=400&d=mm
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