Russia considers working age of 12 to solve wartime jobs crisis

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/06/04/russia-considers-working-age-12-to-solve-wartime-job-crisis/

Children’s rights champion suggests reopening Soviet labour camps in summer holidays

222 points · 25 comments · view on lemmy.world

25 Comments

someguy3@lemmy.world · 101 pts · 74d

"almost all of them want to work in the summer"

Children yearn for the gulag.

DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 74d (1 reply)

Stop. You're making American conservatives hard.

nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 5 pts · 73d

... and the libertarians are actively ejaculating

shweddy@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 74d (10 replies)

Why the kids gotta pick up the slack for the adults?

Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org · 21 pts · 74d

Because those adults are getting ground up in Ukraine and the warmachine needs to grind on.

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 12 pts · 74d (6 replies)

they killed 1.5 of their own young men in a pointless war

russia has 150 million inhabitants. that's 1% of the entire population dead.

Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 74d (3 replies)

Even the higher estimates put the toll at over a million casualties, not deaths. Even at a very pessimistic 50% casualty rate, that's 750k dead.

Still a lot.

doo@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 74d (2 replies)

And they are

  • relatively healthy (enough to be sent to die)
  • men
  • of working age

And given that those that are enough wounded to be discharged also can't really work as before, we're looking at something like 5-10% of the male workforce.

That's a lot a lot.

Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 74d (1 reply)

And that's just the ones killed or injured, that doesn't count the ones who've fled the country to avoid being drafted, which from what I've heard is something like three million.

Plus the ones still alive serving in Ukraine. It's no wonder they have a labour shortage.

OwOarchist@pawb.social · 3 pts · 73d

Plus the ones 'missing in action' in Ukraine.

Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 72d (1 reply)

I mean, 1.5 young men isn't a lot. You can barely film a gay porn video with that many.

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 2 pts · 72d

1.5 million i meant :)

Rothe@piefed.social · 11 pts · 74d

Everybody gotta pick up the slack of the dictator and his mistakes. That is how dictatorships works.

MrNesser@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 74d

Not a lot of adults left

LostWanderer@fedia.io · 20 pts · 74d (2 replies)

Ah, looks like the ill-advised War to take Ukraine is grinding too much of their workforce into either deserters or unnecessary casualties. Sane leaders would've long given up (or never started) a war that is so very worthless fight or continue. However, Putin will instead continue the fruitless war effort and try to get children to work, as they yearn for hard labor instead of playing ball or being carefree. I genuinely wonder if Russia has a future as a nation, given what Putin's sustained and incompetent leadership has doomed them towards inevitable collapse.

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 2 pts · 74d (1 reply)

i'm not sure whether it's relevant in this context but i remember reading that it's mostly the russian oligarchs who pushed for this war. putin, among all them, is the most cool-headed one

i'm not saying that to defend them or anything, but i think that the thought that "if we get rid of putin, things will improve" is a very ill-advised take.

LostWanderer@fedia.io · 2 pts · 74d

I never said getting rid of Putin would change anything...The unique conditions that Russian citizens have lived under for years upon years, would enable anyone to replace Putin and be just as shit as him. If that person sucked a little less, and life improved a tiny bit. Nobody would care, it would be business as usual. I wouldn't be surprised that Russian Oligarchs might have had some influence, as the rich always benefit from a terrible war.

elucubra@sopuli.xyz · 14 pts · 72d (1 reply)

It's already in place:

Exemptions in labor laws allowing children as young as 12 to work legally on commercial farms for unlimited hours remain in place.

Oh, wait, that is the southern US.

Squizzy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 71d

We all know the US is a shithole with better accents and slop output.

betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 74d

Soon: Russian draft age lowered to 12, conscription notices to be mailed shortly.

itsjustachairmary@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 74d

I'm sure parents will be thrilled to send their 12 year olds into the mines

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 6 pts · 74d (1 reply)

She argued children should be allowed to take up part-time work in the summer holidays to earn “a little money”, insisting “it is no secret that we need to change federal labour legislation”.

Damn that reminds me of Merz saying "it's no secret that we all need to work more" (by which he means, everyone except the rich should work more)


Although Vladimir Putin has boasted of historic low unemployment rates of 2 per cent, a constriction of available workers has made desperate employers raise wages in an effort to draw staff, increasing costs for consumers and squeezing profits for businesses.

what a crisis (/s)

Kirp123@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 74d

That's one way to solve unemployment, just kill all the unemployed.

content_educator_94@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 73d

Wow

peatbogman@leminal.space · 4 pts · 72d

Had a job in the UK as a 12 year old, cleaning at a butchers shop. Was not unusual in my region. Nobody cared much if it was legal or not.

whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 74d
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