Nonetheless, the younger males’s fathers every felt their son had a manly responsibility to serve. One son returned residence. The opposite got here again severely overwhelmed and died of his wounds quickly after, leaving his father, Nikolai Lazhiev, with unanswered, heartbreaking questions.
Lazhiev, who lives in an industrial city within the northern Karelia area, by no means opposed the struggle. He simply thought different folks ought to combat it — not his solely son, Andrei, 19, who was presupposed to be shielded from lively fight.
Regardless of Putin’s promise, Andrei was deployed to occupied Crimea, close to the entrance, and died after extreme beatings, apparently by members of his unit, in what his father suspects was a case of violent army hazing.
Askhabali Alibekov, a former paratrooper and father of 4 who lives far south, within the port metropolis of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea close to Ukraine, couldn’t be extra totally different from the soft-spoken Lazhiev. Alibekov is a brash, fast-talking anti-Putin activist and videoblogger who all the time opposed the struggle and went to jail for his antiwar posts.
Alibekov’s son, Mikhail, 21, was additionally doing his obligatory service and, like Andrei, was not presupposed to be despatched to Ukraine. Alibekov thinks his son is alive in the present day primarily as a result of he refused to signal a contract — though troopers who don’t signal typically face humiliation or beatings, activists say.
“I knew that they might take him hostage due to my exercise,” Alibekov stated, referring to his video posts towards Putin and the struggle. “And I instructed him, ‘You aren’t going there. It’s higher you go to jail.’ And he listened to me.”
Lazhiev additionally persuaded his son to not signal. However moderately than reduction, he has solely questions now. How was his son killed — not combating, however by Russians? Who’s accountable? And the way did he come to be so betrayed by Russian energy?
Lazhiev, a steam turbine operator in Pitkyaranta, an industrial city on Lake Ladoga close to Finland, is patriotic, loath to problem authority and proud that Andrei graduated from the native technical school as an open-pit mining operator, driving tractors and bulldozers.
Andrei was a quiet, introverted “common man” who didn’t excel at exams and disliked sports activities, preferring books and historical past, his father stated. Andrei meekly started his obligatory army service on June 26. In contrast to many others, significantly the sons of the rich elite, he didn’t flee to dodge his service.
“We have been by no means going to violate this legislation,” Lazhiev stated in an interview. “His perspective to it was completely regular. He anticipated it. It was routine.”
On Aug. 26, two months after he was drafted, Andrei instructed his mother and father of strain to signal a contract.
“I instructed him, ‘Son, you don’t want this. You’re too younger. You wouldn’t have a household. You wouldn’t have youngsters,’” Lazhiev stated. “I imagine that those that are mature, who’ve households, who’ve served, may signal contracts, however not him.”
Putin final month ordered a rise within the measurement of the army by 170,000, amid immense casualties in Ukraine estimated by U.S. intelligence to be about 300,000 wounded or useless. Final yr, he signed a legislation enabling the army to enroll conscripts, together with youngsters, as contract troopers.
Days earlier than the common October conscription spherical, distinguished Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov extolled the official upside-down logic that struggle “is life.”
“The reality is that man was born for struggle, not peace,” Solovyov stated on the state tv program “Nashi,” or “Ours,” the place one of many company wore a black balaclava. “Struggle reveals a lot about folks that you could see who’s who,” he continued. “Males all the time dwell in struggle.”
However households of mobilized troopers or conscripts pressured to signal contracts see it in another way. Wives, mother and father and teams struggling to avoid wasting males from the struggle are attacked as traitors, designated as overseas brokers and placed on needed lists.
Every week after Andrei spoke of strain to signal a contract, his unit moved into Crimea in occupied Ukraine and he stopped calling. Three weeks later, a fellow conscript instructed his father that Andrei was within the hospital. Every week later, the unit moved to Armyansk, close to the occupied Kherson area.
On Oct. 15, a fellow soldier contacted Nikolai Lazhiev from Navy Marine Hospital 1472 in Sevastopol to say that Andrei was in a extreme situation. He despatched photographs of Andrei in a wheelchair and searching unfocused.
The daddy contacted army prosecutors and regional Russian officers in useless. The unit commander refused to reveal Andrei’s location. Docs “couldn’t diagnose him or most likely they only didn’t disclose the analysis,” Lazhiev stated. “However the guys who have been with him stated that they noticed traces of beatings on his physique.”
“The docs stored saying that he was tremendous,” Lazhiev stated, however they refused his requests to go to. He finally managed to talk to Andrei by telephone and was shocked by his thick, halting voice. “By this time, he couldn’t see,” the daddy stated. “He misplaced his eyesight. And he may barely stroll. And he had misplaced 40 kilograms.”
On Oct. 23, Andrei was transferred to a safe psychiatric unit. Lazhiev spoke to a health care provider there who didn’t give his identify however described indicators of quite a few beatings Andrei had suffered. “In all probability he was overwhelmed on his head,” Lazhiev stated. The commander and officers “have been most likely making an attempt to cowl up their crime,” he added.
Andrei’s situation sharply deteriorated on the finish of October, so his mother and father purchased tickets to Sevastopol. Lazhiev referred to as the hospital from the airport early on Nov. 2, and discovered that Andrei had died. He was instructed to go residence.
The pathologist’s report discovered that Andrei died of swelling and hemorrhaging within the mind, however his mother and father acquired no solutions about what occurred. “We acquired no data from the army commanders, from the army unit or anybody,” Lazhiev stated.
Alibekov was in jail for his antiwar activism whereas his son was within the army. However as a patriotic ex-commander who fought for Russia towards Chechen separatists, the elder Alibekov considered obligatory service as “the responsibility of all males.”
‘Large psychological strain’
Nonetheless, he was certain officers would attempt to terrify conscripts into signing up. Mikhail was put “underneath big psychological strain” to signal, Alibekov stated.
“There have been many conscripts and practically all of them have been pressured to signal contracts,” Alibekov stated. “And out of his unit, solely he and three different guys refused to enroll. They have been humiliated terribly. The commanders stated, ‘Have a look at the cowards! They don’t need to die for the Motherland!’”
Alibekov was nonetheless in jail when his son returned from the military, however he sang and danced in his solitary cell. When he was launched in November after greater than a yr in jail, his son was ready on the gate, with an enormous smile on his face.
Alibekov went straight again to his YouTube weblog, condemning the struggle. To keep away from arrest, he’s on the run in an undisclosed location, determined to flee Russia along with his household.
Sergei Krivenko, who’s a part of the rights group Citizen, Military, Regulation, which advocates for conscripts and troopers, stated Russia’s army was urgent teenage conscripts into signing contracts, aiming to make use of them as cannon fodder.
“They’re deceived,” Krivenko stated. “They’re instructed, ‘Signal a contract and also you’ll be paid immediately.’ However they’re not instructed that will probably be unattainable to withdraw from the contract or end their army service. They discover themselves on this army atmosphere surrounded by their commanders with no clear concept of what to do.”
Lazhiev buried his son on the finish of November, however his questions and anger stay.
“Solely God is aware of what occurred,” he stated. “However so long as I’m alive, I’ll commit my total life to making an attempt to resolve this case.”