Five days after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine, the move has triggered outraged protests, a fearful exodus and acts of violence across the vast country.
The Kremlin’s spokesman tried to shift blame for errors in the call-up to regional agencies on Monday, the same day a gunman attacked a draft office in Siberia.
Alleged gunman Ruslan Zinin, 25, who said ‘no one will go to fight’ and ‘we will all go home now’, has been arrested; the officer is in intensive care.