"Hopefully it's a different winter there". What do men in Russian military enlistment offices talk about?

The Novye Izvestiya correspondent led one of these parties and listened to what the mobilized were talking about.

Alexander Dybin, St. Petersburg

Saturday morning at the military registration and enlistment office of the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg began with an unusual revival. Groups of people stood outside the building and quietly discussed something. The focus of each group is a man with a travel bag. These are those called into the army as part of partial mobilization. Visually, the mobilized are divided into two groups: men over 40 and very young. The practice of mobilization has shown that the army authorities are particularly interested in two categories. Firstly, people with combat experience, and our people could get the most serious combat experience only during the Chechen campaigns. These people are now well over 40. The second preferred category is young guys with fresh contract experience.

- Yesterday there were a lot of people - a full yard, today it's smaller, - looking around the audience from the height of the porch, a man in the uniform of the Ministry of Emergency Situations says. The military registration and enlistment office shares the building with the fire station.

Newly arrived reservists go inside for a while, check in and go outside to join the flash mob: stand with their own and discuss what is already clear.

“I gave you pills there, for fever, for the head”, - a woman gives instructions to a short and thin man.

- Yes, I never drank them, there is something I need them for, - the man cheers up.

“There are no such people in Ukraine, and where will you look if necessary”, - the woman calms down.

- He will find - a man from the "support group" with a tap on the shoulder of the mobilized ended a meaningless argument. Senseless, because no one thought to climb into the trunk, look for and throw away pills from the head.

A little to the side, in the parking lot, a support group surrounded the open trunk of the Polo. The man handed out paper cups in which coffee is poured. They clinked soundlessly and silently waited.

Everyone was waiting for the “full set” to get into the minibus and leave for the units.

Why did they bring her with them? - a young guy in camouflage asked his relatives, pointing to a small dog.

- Let her also say goodbye, she's worried.

The dog studied the lawn indifferently.

“They called to work from the military registration and enlistment office, they said to prepare such and such for dispatch, to calculate,” a 45-year-old man tells a simple story of his mobilization, “at the plant they didn’t even know how to arrange it all, how to write down why they were fired. But in the end, they calculated quickly, the money immediately came to the card.

Another group discussed the ammunition they would be given.

- What color do you need? Green?

Or light brown. We chose Avito all evening yesterday, everything is there, both uniform and unloading.

- I hope the winter is different there, not like ours, not cold. Yes, and without greenery it will be easier.

The reasoning was interrupted by an employee of the military registration and enlistment office, who gestured the men to the long-warmed bus.

- Not scary? - we ask the man who picked up the bag from the ground.

- In 1996, they called, it was scary when it was the first time, it was always scary, but now it’s not anymore, - he answered, jumping into the salon.

Recall that Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia on September 21. According to the president, only those who "served in the ranks of the armed forces, have certain military specialties and relevant experience" will be called up. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans to mobilize 300,000 people.

The heads of various regions of Russia reported on support measures for the families of the mobilized. Thus, the Moscow authorities plan to pay 50,000 rubles to those called up, and in the Leningrad Region to keep a minimum wage for reservists. In St. Petersburg, Governor Alexander Beglov called for providing the families of the mobilized with a social package and intensifying work to find draft dodgers.