Vladimir Putin seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Well, not just one, really. But the one I’m talking about is a personnel problem. He’s running out of people to “volunteer” for the suicide mission he still blithely calls a “special military operation.” In a country with an estimated population of 145 million souls, how is this even possible?

Well, first you suffer nearly 50,000 casualties in the first 18 months of what was supposed to have been a simple snatch-and-grab operation of a few days in February of 2022. Then you announce a mobilization of another 300,000 reservists, causing tens of thousands of potential conscripts to flee the country rather than offer themselves up as sacrificial lambs to a cause they don’t believe in. And to top it off, you dismantle the illegal but very effective Wagner Group of mercenaries, whose members had previously been the most successful (para)military force fighting for the Russian side in Ukraine.

Then, to try to make up the shortfall, you mess with the laws governing military conscription: you extend the maximum age from 27 to 30; you make it easier to serve draft notices by allowing them to be served electronically rather than in person; and you increase — tenfold — the fine for failure to report for duty after receipt of draft notice. And finally, in one stroke of absolute genius, you deal with the law that says that conscripts may not be sent to serve outside of Russian territory by simply claiming four areas of Ukraine as now belonging to Russia. Brilliant!

But it seems that even that isn’t enough. Because now word comes out of Cuba — small, distant Cuba! — that there have been instances of human trafficking being committed by a network operating from Russia. Not trafficking of women or children. No . . . these are young men, not coincidentally of fighting age. According to a September 5th report by CNN’s Christian Edwards and Patrick Oppmann:

“Cubans living in Russia and ‘even some in Cuba’ had been trafficked and ‘incorporated into the military forces taking part in the war in Ukraine,’ the Cuban foreign ministry said Monday in a statement.”

”The ministry gave few details about the alleged trafficking operations, but said that authorities were working to ‘neutralize and dismantle’ the network.”

There have been reports from Cubans on social media stating that “they had been tricked into joining the war effort and mistreated when they refused to fight.” (CNN was not able to independently verify those allegations.)

How very, very clever. Take a long-time ally — one presently suffering its worst economic crisis in decades; supply it with desperately-needed food and crude oil; and promise it additional foreign investment. Then lure its impoverished young men — some from the streets of Cuba itself and others living in Russia — with offers of money, and even Russian citizenship.

There is precedent for this. Cuban “mercenaries” have fought for Russia in the past, notably in South Africa. But, according to Sergei Radchenko of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), this one “sounds like something very different” because of the indications of coercion being used.

It’s not hard to understand: offer a starving person food and shelter, and he’ll be yours forever . . . regardless of how short “forever” may be. Just reread Oliver Twist . . . Charles Dickens truly understood human nature.

Understandable, yes. And also despicable. Who’s next? What other countries are “friends” of present-day Russia, ripe for the picking? And for each of them, I have one bit of advice: “Be afraid; be very afraid.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/7/23