Anton Gerashchenko
In the past 4 days at least 27 drafting offices were set on fire in Russia and temporarily occupied Crimea. Just yesterday there were about 20 attempts to set drafting offices on fire. Even retirees were involved, the oldest is 84 years old. Yuriy Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament defense committee, believes it is quite possiible that ordinary people started setting fire to military enlistment offices because of emotional shock after the Russian parliament and the Federation Council approved the law on raising draft age to 30 years with the lower limit of 18 years. So, the government realizes that it is in conflict with the people, and mass arson of military enlistment offices is an attempt of the latter to demonstrate their discontent. All that the Russian authorities can do is to intensify repression and propaganda. Russia is gradually "boiling over". As repressions intensify, the logical response is to intensify resistance.