Putin party gives meat grinders to mothers of dead troops

AFP | Warsaw

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Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line.

The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photos on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear mums” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons”. It said the gifts were the initiative of the women’s wing of the party.

Some online commentators called the gesture as “shameful” and “inappropriate”. Russia is often accused of throwing its frontline soldiers into a “meat grinder” with scant regard for their lives. The Russian word for meat grinder, myasorubka, has the same double meaning as in English.