Russia’s anti-war movement should learn from the ‘patriotic dissent’ used by women involved in the war

Natasha Danilova / Jennifer Mathers

The women in Russia’s military families are posing a subtle but significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s handling of the war in Ukraine by engaging in a form of political activism best described as ‘patriotic dissent’. When Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, many expected the mothers of Russia’s soldiers to be at the forefront of anti-war street protests, based on their activism during Moscow’s previous wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Some soldiers’ mothers have expressed opposition to the war and participated in public protests, but for the most part their responses are more complex than straightforward condemnation – or support.

The mothers and wives of Russian servicemen are using patriotic dissent for their political action because they are enmeshed in a complex relationship with the Russian state and its military power, which in turn reflects the fraught relationship that the country’s citizens have with military service…

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-ukraine-anti-war-movement-military-women-mothers-wives/