On March 12, the aggressor’s propaganda announced a new project to militarize the population of occupied Crimea. This involves the creation of “women’s councils” within the so-called “municipal administrations” of the invaders.
However, the goals of these structures, organized by order, are as far removed as possible from issues of women’s equality or the protection of their rights.
Besides the declared promotion of “traditional values” in the form of medieval approaches of the “Russian world,” the main focus of the “women’s councils” will be directed not simply at “supporting” the participants in the Russian aggression, but also at recruiting new “cannon fodder” for the invaders, including Crimean women.
The “talking heads” of this network are Nonna Bakhareva and Ruzanna Avetisyan, collaborators of the so-called “Crimean regional branch of the Union of Women of Russia.” The “official launch” of these “women’s councils” is scheduled for April.
Bakhareva, previously “made her mark” as the “chair of the public council at the ministry of health” of the occupiers and as a member of the “charitable foundation” “Let’s be merciful,” which laundered money by transporting underage patients from Crimean hospitals.
And Avetisyan, a former journalist with the “Chernomorskaya” (“Black Sea”) TV Company, became an illegal “deputy of the Simferopol City Council” from “United Russia” in 2024 and has repeatedly participated in occupier events promoting the Russian army among Crimean schoolchildren over the past year.
