Putin 'will call for general mobilisation in Russia after winning 2024 presidential elections'

Vladimir Putin will ramp up his illegal war on Ukraine and could call for a general mobilization in Russia once he has won the 2024 presidential elections, it has been claimed.

Anger has been rising among the families of Putin's conscripts, with the paranoid dictator ordering the gagging of women condemning the war so their protests do not jeopardize his re-election.

Tens of thousands of mothers and wives have signed a petition calling for their forcibly conscripted young men to be brought home, with many also taking to the streets.

Now there have been warnings that once the Russian leader 'cements' his hold on power with a re-inauguration - which could see him remain president until 2030 - he will have a 'free rein' to roll out conscription to the whole country.

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, told an international security forum that Russia is fully committed to its objective of destroying Ukraine as a nation.

Danilov said that Russia's economy 'is increasingly shifting to a war footing,' and that 'a possible general mobilization could come after the 2024 elections,' The New Voice of Ukraine reports.

In his speech to the Halifax International Security Forum on Monday, Danilov added that Russia has 'proven to be more resilient to Western sanctions than expected.'

Ukraine and its allies have '3−4 months to prepare accordingly', Danilov added, with the elections on March 17 marking a potential 'milestone' for the Kremlin.

Putin, 71, who was was handed the presidency on December 31 1999, has already served for longer than any other Russian ruler since Stalin. 

Having survived the Wagner group mutiny in June, insiders have said the Russian leader is looking to shore up his power by running in the upcoming elections.

He is widely expected to remain in power for life, and has systematically silenced critics, most notably opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is languishing in a penal colony.

Despite ruling with an iron fist, pressure is mounting on the dictator from inside Russia, with an increase in criticism from the families of those already serving on the frontline.

The president is said to be concerned that the rising number of protests by wives and mothers of forcibly mobilised men will harm his planned campaign for re-election.

Putin is all too aware that a revolt led by mothers resulted in the end of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in 1979, and hastened the collapse of the USSR.

His regional officials and secret services have been ordered to stamp out anti-war dissent at any cost, according to reports.

One recent protest saw a female anti-war campaigner declare 'Putin is spitting in your face,' as she and others gathered for a protest.

She expressed outrage to watching police officers that Putin is freeing and pardoning thousands of murderers and rapists who served six months in his war, while condemning ordinary law-abiding mobilised men to stay at the front like cannon fodder and locking up those who complain.

Another protest saw an unprecedented petition of 100,000 women calling for mobilised men to come home.

It has now been revealed that regional governors have been ordered to crack down on protests, currently running at their highest levels nationwide in the almost 21-month war.

One regional government source told The Insider: 'The task is to stop external [street] protests at any cost.

'Persuade, promise, pay.

'Anything, as long as it doesn't go out onto the street, in any quantity, even 50 people.'

The order was given to regional officials by Putin's presidential administration, said the source.

Protest organisers have been contacted by the feared FSC security service and threatened with sanctions if they go ahead with demonstrations that - the authorities worry - might spiral out of control.

Recently there have been limited protests in Moscow, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk, among other cities, but many have been banned.

The authorities in St. Petersburg used anti-Covid restrictions to ban a rally, with mass events barred for the rest of the year in Putin's home city.

Olga Tsukanova, 47, founder of the Council of Wives and Mothers, has been included in the register of 'foreign agents', and faces repression as a criminal prosecution is launched against her.

One anti-war protester, beautician Olga Kats, has vowed to challenge Putin after he flatly rejected her petition signed by 100,000 women to allow mobilised men to come home.

She began her campaign because she wants her brother Aleksander, 26, back after more than a year on the frontline.

'We are seeking to establish a maximum service period for mobilisation,' she said.

'It's high time to bring home the civilian men who fell under partial mobilisation.'

'The Presidential Administration simply decided not to care about the efforts of 100,000 people,' she said.

She was told the men would only come home 'at the end of hostilities'.

An image shows her and other women demanding the mobilised troops be allowed home.

'The only one whose words we will believe is Putin,' she said after being contacted by his administration in a failed bid to silence her.

'And I said we need to hear these words before the New Year.'

Until now many Russians have felt too intimidated by Putin's police state to protest, but it appears many more are doing so as the death toll soars in the conflict.

In Moscow, women took to the streets in the shadow of the Kremlin with placards reading 'Give the children their fathers back', 'It's time for the mobilised to go home', and 'Justice is demobilisation for the mobilised'.

One of the women - named Inna - said: 'The kids ask where their daddy is, when he's coming back, and we have no answers.

'We are just living in hell.'

In Khabarovsk, a protest leader ranted against police seeking to control a demonstration by mainly women.

'Instead of revolting and being outraged, you stick your tongues up your ***** and catch us, peaceful citizens,' she told the police.

'Shame on you! Shame! Shame! Shame on the police!

'Disgraceful! Stop arresting the protesters!'

Another woman, Olga Belanovskaya, wife of a mobilised man, flew seven time zones across Russia with a 'collective appeal' to Putin's authorities on behalf of hundreds of wives and mothers.

She revealed the disgusting conditions in which the mobilised are held - including being forced naked into a pit if they refuse to fight because of a lack of basic military equipment and food.

She has no idea whether her husband Maxim, 28, is alive or dead.

'I came [to Moscow] with a personal appeal to President Putin's administration, the Ministry of Defence and other authorities,' she said.

'Our young [refusenik] men are sitting inside holes dug in the ground.

'They are forced to strip naked and can only leave them if they pay a bribe of 400,000 roubles [£3,575/$4,450].

'They are sent to these holes for refusing to go into attack without proper equipment after being ordered to go with just machine guns against artillery, tanks, mortars.

'To take a break, soldiers have to pay 200,000 roubles [£1,785/$2,225].

'They are given the shortest time possible to dig trenches, and only after that the soldiers are given a bottle of water and some basic food - until then there is no food.

'Even the wounded who are kept in a basement aren't given food, in other words, they are finishing them [the wounded soldiers] off.

'Wounded soldiers, even those who are on crutches and in wheelchairs are sent back to the front.' She said that if they try to get medical exemption 'they get rejected'.