Russia to Hire Contract Soldiers in Bid to Avoid Unpopular Draft. Russia is preparing to enlist more contract soldiers as it presses its invasion of Ukraine, aiming to avoid at least for now another mass call-up that could undermine popular support for the war
It shouldn’t. Russia controls all of its media. To Russians, Putin is fighting a war to free their ancestral homeland from Nazis.
Russians aren’t all just nice people fooled by state media, either. They have their own version of MAGAt over there, and those dudes are saying “Ukraine is ours historically. The west can go fuck the selves if they don’t like it.”
This allows them to feel simultaneously strong in their local sphere and relevant on the world stage. These feelings are desperately needed by complete assholes who have almost nothing good about themselves or their country to point to.
Not only its own media, but almost all russian language media throughout the world is monitored and controlled by the russian government. If the only language you know is russian, it’s very hard to get unbiased information.