evidence: Editor’s Note: Editor’s note: Andrei Kolesnikov is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of several books on the political and social history of Russia, including "Five Five-Year Liberal Reforms." Origins of Russian Modernization and Egor Gaidar’s Legacy." The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion articles on CNN. In a televised national address Wednesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization. This means that he has essentially broken an unwritten social contract with Russians: we, the citizens, allow you, the authorities, to steal and fight, but in exchange you stay out of our private lives. Beginning a new phase of the war, the cornered Putin is dragging a significant portion of Russians behind him. He has de facto declared war on the domestic front – not only on the opposition and civil society, but on the male population of Russia.