Photo: Kuban Cossack Host on Telegram
Members of a youth advisory body under the legislature of Russia's Tyumen region are being expelled for refusing to weave camouflage nets for the war in Ukraine, according to the parliament's first deputy speaker.
Andrey Artyukhov said six people were removed from the last cohort of the region’s Civic Youth Chamber for opting out of net-weaving, and that he receives weekly reports tracking who has been making nets for what Moscow calls its "special military operation."
"I take a hard line on people who slack off," Artyukhov said. "If someone doesn't show up to weave nets, we expel them. I always say: what kind of future public figure are you if you can't find even an hour to come to the Duma building — your own Duma — and weave nets with everyone else?"
He held up the chair of the previous cohort as a model volunteer, noting that she had regularly travelled to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine on what he described as "humanitarian missions."
Artyukhov also warned incoming members that anyone who joined the body "just for the credentials" would be "out in five seconds."
