For legal adviser Andrei Rinchino, each day begins by sorting through dozens of new messages from Russian soldiers and their families.
Each message is different but all are looking for the same thing: Rinchino’s guidance on how to quit the Russian army or avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine.
“A couple of weeks ago one of my followers wrote to me that her son and some of his fellow soldiers at the front handed in their notices,” said Rinchino, who is head of the legal department at the Free Buryatia Foundation, an anti-war organization founded by members of Russia’s indigenous Buryat community.
“A hundred people all [resigned] at the same time,” he told The Moscow Times.
Since the start of Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine in February, thousands of Russian contract soldiers and National Guard employees have refused to be sent into battle.
Helping these conscientious objectors are a handful of Russian human rights organizations, NGOs and individuals with legal training. But, as the Kremlin looks to shore up support for the war and crush dissent, Russian lawyers have faced an unprecedented wave of pressure.
“Even before [the invasion], the atmosphere in the country was not the best for working as a lawyer, but since the beginning of the war things have become absolutely horrible,” said prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who left Russia last year.
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