Pro-Kremlin TV Host Urges Wives to Be Patient with Husbands Returning from War and Tolerate Excesses

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 30 – Perhaps the social group that will suffer the most when Russian veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine return home are members of their families, especially if Moscow continues to urge women to put up with abuse and show patience given the contribution their husbands have made to the war effort.

    Aware that a significant portion of Russian veterans will be suffering from PTSD and that they will be offered little help in overcoming it, many of them may take out their frustrations and anger by attacking family members, drinking heavily or otherwise engaging in anti-social behavior (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/moscows-failure-to-treat-secondary.html).

    Over the last two years, various government-aligned groups have issued pamphlets directed at the wives of veterans and calling on them to show patience with alcoholism, sexual demands and even beatings (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/wives-of-russian-veterans-of-putins-war.html and takiedela.ru/notes/ne-podkhodite-so-spiny/).

    Now, however, a more influential and authoritative source, Sergei Karnaukhov, a cohost of Moscow TV’s Solovyev is saying the same thing, words that have outraged many (https://cjh.tgsession.com/3sw659_2azskcftofuemus/7hzrpeyvjr
    
    His remarks have also prompted rights activists to try to get the word to the wives of veterans that help is available because no one should have to be forced to put up with abuse even from those the Kremlin continues to call “heroes” (t.me/alenapopova/6126 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/nikto-ne-dolzhen-terpet-nasilie).

    But Putin’s cult of heroic masculinity and his desire to integrate the returning veterans into his political hierarchy likely means that many women and children are going to suffer and that those who try to come to their aid are likely to face resistance from the courts and the still-highly patriarchal segments of society.