Arthur Greene
Thousands of Russian soldiers are being needlessly slaughtered in Ukraine, and the state is now so desperate to hold onto public support for the invasion that they’ll try practically anything.
Their latest silver lining? If your son gets killed, you’ll be able to buy yourself a brand new car with the compensation payment.
The state-owned channel Russia 1 ran a story this week about a couple who were able to buy a Lada after their son Alexei was killed in Ukraine.
“Like his fathers and great-grandfathers, he fought against fascism,” the newsreader lies as we see a photograph of the deceased next to his grieving mother.
But suddenly the story gets a little brighter: “In memory of our son we bought a nice new car,” the father says to a Russia 1 journalist.
“The new Lada was bought with what people call ‘coffin-money’, but it is officially ‘a lump-sum allowance for the family of the deceased’,” the newsreader explains.
“His father says that Alexei dreamt of having a white car, just like this one. Its first trip is to the cemetery.”
According to the Ukrainian government, there have been an estimated 38,300 Russian casualties since the invasion was launched on 24 February.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced compensation for the families of fallen soldiers shortly after the war began. Earlier this month he announced compensation of 5 million rubles for the families of fallen soldiers in the National Guard – that’s almost R1.5 million.
It sounds generous now, but when the ruble plummeted back in March as a result of global sanctions on Russia, families of the deceased were reportedly receiving significantly smaller payments. So while families can invest in white Ladas now to pay tribute to their dead sons, four months ago they had to settle for an amount that would hardly cover their weekly grocery shop.
