{"id":18172,"date":"2022-10-07T10:32:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T10:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=18172"},"modified":"2022-10-07T10:32:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T10:32:04","slug":"medal-for-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/medal-for-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Medal For Courage. The Kremlin begins to decorate Russian cannon fodder"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Cannon fodder”<\/strong> is a good definition for the numerous Russian volunteer units formed throughout Russia. In order not to waste their professional military, the Russians staked on volunteers from marginalized groups outlawed from conscription in peacetime.<\/p>\n

Volunteers \u2013 professionals or not?<\/h2>\n

To begin with, one should not treat Russian volunteer units lightly. They hate Ukraine with a passion and want easy money \u2013 this is what drives loads of former security and military professionals into war with Ukraine. Those are retired ex-military \u2013 almost all of them have already fought somewhere \u2013 Russia never wanted to live in peace and it never did. There are also former policemen among them\u2013 the Russians actively used combined police units in all Chechen wars; temporary deployments to Chechnya and Dagestan were a common practice for Russian policemen.<\/p>\n

Besides, after the collapse of the USSR, the Russians consistently reduced their army, with hundreds of thousands of former professional servicemen finding themselves at loose ends. In addition to professionals, this war sucked in hundreds of thousands of Russian conscripts with at least some wartime experience.<\/p>\n

Concurrently with the reduction of the army, the Russians increased the number of their security agencies \u2013 the Russian Guard became a kind of a shadow army, the Federal Security Service (FSB) put on some additional muscles. Thanks to Shoigu, his “home” Ministry of Emergency Situations was also reformed. One can add here paramilitary organizations (such as Cossacks<\/a>), numerous private security companies and the general militarization of the society. That is, there are quite a few people in Russia experienced in weapons handling.<\/p>\n

Work in security agencies and the military has always been much coveted by many Russians because of excellent social security benefits, early retirement and relatively easy money. Being conscripted to serve as, say, a paratrooper would open up many social elevators for a Russian man. On the other hand, if you got kicked out of the army due to “failure to fulfill the terms and conditions of the contract” (FFTC), you could no longer have a career in government bodies. There are also formal restrictions on employment in the security agencies, such as age, criminal record, physical fitness, or prior FFTC dismissal.<\/p>\n

So, millions of Russians who know how to fight and are willing to fight against Ukraine (or rather \u2013 as they see it \u2013 against “NATO\/America”) were sidelined by official Russian security agencies and the army. One should not belittle the number of Russians who hate Ukraine and Ukrainians simply because Ukraine and Ukrainians exist.<\/p>\n

PMCs, BARS, volunteer units<\/h2>\n

When the all-out war with Ukraine broke out, many Russians were given a great opportunity to join in, bypassing official restrictions. If you are more or less a professional, join numerous PMCs<\/a> \u2013 these are effectively state military units which serve the state under a thin “commercial” disguise. Some PMCs are closer to the army and some to other government bodies. They have supervisors; some of them are professional servicemen, most likely the so-called “servicemen on leave”. Make no mistake \u2013 these are not private companies.<\/p>\n

Later on, they were joined by people from BARS<\/strong> (an abbreviation meaning “battle army reserve”). All of the above was a sort of attempt to get on board all those ready to go into combat on the back of simplified recruitment conditions.<\/p>\n

Military units began to offer short-time contracts and recruit even those dismissed due to FFTC. The age limit was raised.<\/p>\n

In the Russian regions, they began to form volunteer units with virtually no restrictions with regard to those willing to join. “No matter who and what you are, come on in \u2013 we\u2019ll find you a proper unit: we\u2019ll pay you 200\u041a+ rubles a month and you have our promise that the time served will be included into your retirement plan, you\u2019ll get combat payments, the status of a war veteran and all kinds of regional and federal benefits if you are injured or killed” \u2013 this is what motivates tens of thousands of Russians to go to war with Ukraine as “volunteers”.<\/p>\n

Legal technicalities<\/h2>\n

And yet, despite all the tall promise, they are cannon fodder and are treated as such. Formally, any PMC is a commercial military unit. If you join one, you know full well what you are up to. If, on a one fine day, your PMC ceases to legally exist, you are on your own.<\/p>\n

With BARS fighters and volunteers, things look a bit different. Often the signing of a contract is delayed as much as possible; in many cases the contract is signed when the you are already in the field. Contracts are signed either with the military unit, or with the relevant department of the Defense Ministry, or with the Defense Ministry’s Directorate.<\/p>\n

The devil is in the detail though: under some contracts, the “contract soldier” is not actually a serviceman but merely a contractor of Russia’s Defense Ministry, with standard military benefits\u00a0not at all guaranteed<\/strong>. Instead of a salary, you get some kind of financial aid which is provided through a charitable foundation.<\/p>\n

If the you are wounded, you may be given financial aid through the Ministry of Social<\/p>\n

Protection rather than through Russia’s Defense Ministry.
\nHere is a telling answer from Russian military medics to one of the mercenaries of the BARS-8 unit:<\/p>\n

“Due to the fact that the BARS-8 unit is not a military detachment of the Defense Ministry, medical examination of BARS-8 fighters by military medical boards of the Defense Ministry is inconsistent with the applicable laws of the Russian Federation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Such volunteers will face their biggest problems after the war. It may turn out that they do not qualify as official combatants or veterans, their unit has been disbanded, and the financial aid was a one-time benefit, their regional social payments have been cut down. “We did not send you there,” is something they are sure to hear from Russian bureaucrats trying to optimize their budgets.<\/p>\n

No decorations for you<\/h2>\n

Many Russian volunteers are starting to face certain problems already now. Their semi-official status does not allow them to have as much social protection as the official military personnel have, so many are in for the hardest battle after they get wounded.<\/p>\n

Not only wounded \u2013 some Russian volunteers have already bit the dust. KIA volunteers began to make their way back to the Russian regions from the early days of the war, not to be buried there as official military personnel,\u00a0with no memorial plaques put on school walls, no streets named after them. And, virtually no mentions on local media.<\/p>\n

If a “volunteer” was a retired serviceman with a military rank or was once related to the army, he might be decorated with the Order of Courage<\/strong><\/a>, a standard Russian military decoration of a serviceman. Some PMC mercenaries would get the order from time to time \u2013 another evidence that some of the PMCs are related to the state.<\/p>\n

But volunteers and “short-term” contract soldiers are not up to this kind of decoration. Indeed, if such a posthumous military order were to be awarded to all volunteers, the official military men \u2013 people with a higher social status than volunteers \u2013 would start to ask questions.<\/p>\n

That is why in the first months of the war volunteers were buried quietly and with no state honors. But, as the number of casualties grew, the Russian authorities had to react somehow.<\/p>\n

Medal For Courage, post mortem<\/h2>\n

In July and August, we began to see the first posthumous awards of state honors to Russian volunteers. Instead of the order, they were posthumously awarded the Medal For Courage \u2013 a Russian copy of another Soviet award that may be awarded post mortem according to the service regulations.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of the awardees of the past weeks:<\/p>\n