kindred

It's possible, but he didn't say that, and our argument continued without your help.

It is weird that you're white-knighting so hard for him.

Why are you here?

The NPR article I linked above was citing a Russian source.

The AP article was citing Russian legislation, which I assume (and I could be wrong) is public record.

I usually try to cite multiple sources because one or all may be biased, but it's less likely that multiple sources will misrepresent reality in exactly the same way.

It is possible, but it is less likely.

I quoted all three in my original response, and he only responded negatively to the one based in UK, implying that he considered the other two met some minimum standard of quality.

He also quoted those same sources in his responses to me. If he thought the same way you do, I would have expected him to dismiss them outright, like you are.

I think you are nothing more than a troll who argues for the sake of it, without a single honest bone in your body. You are the epitome of a reddit debate bro

You won't or can't address my argument above, so you switch to personal attacks.

You introduced the word "press-gang" and tried to turn this into an argument about the dictionary definition of the word.

You also tried to retroactively rewrite my argument. (You're not talking about the draft, you're talking about the reserves. You're not talking about the draft, you're talking about "calling up to the front line.")

And you claim that I'm trolling?

My position has been that Russia has been coercing citizens into military service and I've been consistent on that point.

That's three times now. We'll add:

• Claiming I'm trying to "fabricate a narrative" as if there's some massive conspiracy.

to the list.

Do you seriously think I'm some part of some government operation to "weave a story"?

I'm a rando on the internet who thinks Russia is coercing men who don't want to be in a war to become soldiers.

Whether they corner them with infrastructural tactics or send armed men in unmarked vans to kidnap them off the street is immaterial.

Whether these tactics are practiced by Russia or by "many nations, including US allies" is immaterial.

It would be press-ganging and coercion if Ukraine did the same thing. It's press-ganging and coercion if the United States does it.

Standing on ceremony behind a dictionary definition and whether government says it's legal is such a weird stance to take when the issue is these people don't want to serve in the military, and the government is coercing them into it.

You've tried to move the goalposts twice now, by:

• Claiming my argument is about a "call up to the front line". (I've said draft/conscription since the beginning.)
• Claiming my argument is that an increase in conscription is happening. (I implied press-ganging was happening, and said nothing about a change in the amount of conscription happening.)

I am and have been ignoring anything you threw out that tried to weasel away from the central argument:

The Russian government is coercing (which is how press-ganging is used to mean in normal conversations; this is not an academic conference) people into military service.

Conscription/the draft already technically meets that definition, but piling on prison sentences, suspending drivers licences, banning leaving the country, and restricting bank transactions all make it clear that Russian men are being coerced into military service.