Quote:
My complaint is to President Putin and the minister of defence: If you send servicemen somewhere and they get caught, then admit it and take responsibility, however painful it is,” said the father of Sergei Smirnov, one of the captured Russian soldiers, who did not want to give his first name.
“The Stalin times are over. It’s not 1945 when they rejected PoWs returning home. The state media have ignored our boys’ plight but they’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.” Interestingly, and despite their anxiety, most of the relatives said they believed the official government theory that the soldiers got lost while on an exercise.
However, several said it was an “alarm signal” that the young men send text messages after their departure to Rostov saying their phones were being removed, something that had not happened when they were dispatched on exercises to other parts of Russia.
Obviously the massive propaganda campaign by the Kremlin's media had a deep impact on most of the population and it takes a personal loss for some to wake up to some extent. The people want to believe Putins lies because they are sweeter then the harsh reality. With more Russian soldiers coming back dead every week this will spread, a bit like in those days of the war in Afghanistan. The official political response has been so far pretty much the same, including the efforts to hide the dead.