A Russian soldiers has been videotaped admitting soldiers have declared to supervisors they are willing to shoot to kill Russian civilians if they protest Kremlin policies. Moscow has long been strengthening repressive control over possible civil unrest. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny published the video shown below.
The soldier made the statement in a video interview published Tuesday by opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s office in the Siberian city of Tyumen. In the video, the soldier claimed that his unit had been questioned by federal authorities earlier this year about their political views and that his entire unit had voiced a readiness to shoot demonstrators. Russia’s Defense Ministry called the soldier’s remarks a “primitive hoax,” reported The Moscow Times.
“The authorities understand where all this leads and so they’d like to find out if the army will take their side when something happens,” said the soldier on the video.
“There was no other option,” he was quoted as saying. “We all gave the answer that our superiors wanted.”
“What’s the point of expressing your opinion if they’ll write you off [into the reserves] over nothing?”
On Wednesday, the Znak.com regional news website reported that the soldier had revealed his first name as Artur but asked his last name to be withheld. Artur was conscripted at age 18 in 2017 and serves in the Pacific Fleet’s underwater sabotage forces, the website claimed.
Artur reportedly told the outlet that all 110 members of his team had said they were ready to fire on protesters when the non-anonymous poll was allegedly conducted earlier this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reorganized the ‘national guard’ into a unit to protect Kremlin interests if the public revolts prior to the last presidential election.
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3 comments
I don’t believe one word of this. Real soldiers no matter what country they are from, would never consider shooting unarmed civilians unless truly threatened. It may be hard for people to understand this, but soldiers do not take killing people indiscriminately. They tend to be more hyper sensitive and less casual than many civilians would think.
My apologies, the word following….indiscriminately…should read…lightly. Mea Culpa.
I’m not sure how things would go if there were protests.
Although I hope that soldiers wouldn’t fire on unarmed civilians carrying out demonstrations, you can never be 100% sure of how things would go. Certainly in China at Tiananmen Square, June 4, 1989, an anniversary coming up, Chinese Red Army soldiers ruthlessly attacked unarmed civilians, mostly students, and tanks and armor were involved as well, so crew served platforms, not just individuals. I did hear, I think if I recall correctly, that solders and military units were brought in from the provinces, since units stationed in Beijing weren’t thought to be reliable in suppressing the protestors if violence was resorted to.
A secret British cable from Ambassador Sir Alan Donald, from June 5, 1989, reported up to ten thousand were massacred, many more than prior estimates of up to three thousand, and the cable has been placed in the national archive.
There were reports that students begging for their lives were bayoneted and that burned remains of students were hosed down the drains.
So, soldiers will shoot unarmed civilian protestors.
Quite often there is some provocation, or someone said that shots were being fired.
I think there were civilian casualties in Kiev more recently during civilian demonstrations and shots were fired.
From Nov 21, 2013 to Feb 23, 2014, there were 110 to 123 protetors and 18 police officers killed at the Euromaiden protest. Another person was stabbed to death in Donbas.
If there are protests, expect casualties.