Free Republic

Andrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine. On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead. “We don’t know what happened,” said Alexander Zelensky, the head of the Nevsky Collegium of Lawyers, of which Nikiforov was a member. Zelensky and a member of Nikiforov’s family confirmed his call-up and death. “All we have is a date and a place.” That place was Lysychansk, one of the most...

At least 11 people were killed and 15 more wounded at a military training ground in the Belgorod region in south-western Russia on Saturday when two volunteers opened fire on other troops, the Russian defence ministry has said. .. According to Baza, a Russian news site with close ties to the police, the shooting took place at 10am local time during shooting practice. Saturday’s mass shooting points to growing tensions among Russia’s troops, issues that have plagued its army since the start of the war. The incident also comes as tens of thousands of newly drafted Russian men are sent...

Protests have broken out in parts of Russia following President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he was calling up reservists in an escalation of the war in Ukraine, according to reports. According to Latvian news website Meduza, authorities have begun to confront protests that have erupted in Russian cities. The Avtozak LIVE Telegram channel has shared images of some of the protesters and signs saying "No mobilization" Other signs have used a play on words to turn "no war, no mobilization" to "no war, no grave-ization." In Irkutsk, according to the Irkutsk Anarchist Telegram channel, authorities have already dispersed rallies and...