Russian ultra-nationalists are threatening President Vladimir Putin. They use their Telegram platforms to demand an aggressive military mobilization. Ukraine.
Putin had for months seemed to have gained broad support for his war effort while drowning out any dissent. After a series military defeats culminating in the utter destruction of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv, Putin is now under pressure from many fronts.
The ultra-nationalists are breaking with the official line and have become a problem for Putin’s administration. This has caused Putin’s carefully constructed ‘power vertical to fracture from the inside.
Igor Girkin is a pro-Russian ultra-nationalist who led pro-Russian separatists last week trying to free the Donbass area from Kyiv’s grasp in 2014. Last week, he told his Telegram subscribers of 581,000 that Sergey Shoigu, the Defense Minister, should be executed with a firing squad and that Russia should strike against Ukrainian power plants.
Girkin is one of many people who have advocated for the use of tactical nuclear strikes on different targets to “drive 20 million refugees to Europe.” This tactic was again promoted by Igor Korotchenko (a military expert and editor for Russia’s National Defense magazine) on Russia’s state-run Channel One.
Others have accused the Kremlin of concealing “bad news” about how poorly the war has been going for Russia — a criticism that previously came by the left, and which has largely been denied a hearing in the heavily muzzled Russian media.
The State Duma generally approves any law Putin wants, and isn’t known for breaking the rules. Many commentators were surprised Monday by Mikhail Sheremet’s public statement that “full mobilization in Ukraine” was required for victory.
Dmitry LovetskyAP Photograph
Attacks such as these have in the meantime empowered others across all political spectrums to speak out in a way that was impossible just a few short months ago. A petition calling for Putin’s resignation was signed by liberal councilors in Moscow, St. Petersburg earlier this week.
Dmitry Peskov is Putin’s spokesperson and has responded to the growing anger and nationalists’ anger over Russia’s retreat. He stated that all Russians continue to support Putin.
Peskov said, “The people are united around the decisions made by the head of state.” “As far as other points or views, critical points and points of view are concerned, so long as they do not violate the law, this constitutes pluralism. However, the line between the two is very thin.
Putin, who was elected president in 2000, has consolidated all Russia’s major institutions into one power vertical, where the Kremlin’s bureaucratic machine is at the top. It was designed to crush any hope of democracy and reduce the influence of the oligarchs. He made sure that all key decisions were made through him.
All sides feel the pressure
Putin’s Palace of Power has stood firm to protests from Siberians, ecologists, pensioners, and liberals for over 20 years. However, now the greatest threat is coming to it.
Igor Girkin is the most prominent figurehead for nationalists and has been harsh in his criticisms of Russia’s military strategy. His criticisms ranged from pessimistic, suggesting that Russia can be defeated, to bravado as it was his attempt to coax Putin into more aggressive action.
Girkin stated last week that the war in Ukraine will continue up until Russia’s complete defeat. We are already losing; it’s only a matter of time.
Girkin then stated on Wednesday that Kremlin officials live “on the Planet of the Pink Ponies”; Russia must end total war and not entertain the illusion that the conflict will be settled with “peace at parity terms”.
“Just don’t stop at the Left Bank objects [of the Dnipro river]. He said that Kyiv and Western Ukraine should be extinguished immediately and more ruthlessly.”
Aleksandr Kots is a pro-Kremlin journalist who has 600,000 followers and used his Telegram channel to claim that the Kremlin was concealing terrible news from the Russian people.
“We have to change the system where our leaders don’t like talking about bad news and their subordinates hate to upset their superiors,” said he.
Due to the belief that Girkin and Kots are untouchable, war bloggers like Boris Rozhin or German Kulikovsky as well as Girkin and Kots are also believed to be untouchable. krysha — protection — afforded them by figures in the senior echelons of the military and security services.
Ramzan Kadyrov (the tyrannical leader and volatile Chechen republic) is the wild card.
Dmitry Astakhov – Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP
Kadyrov stated that there is no need for the Kremlin not to declare martial law on Thursday. Each regional governor can prepare, train and staff at least 1,000 volunteers.
Chechnya has prepared a law to allow the drafting for men born between 1995-2004. Kadyrov, on the other hand, has called upon regional governors “self-mobilization.”
After two decades of obedient obedience, even the Communists are taking a stand. Their veteran leader Gennady Zyuganov is seemingly frustrated with toeing the official line 26 years after allegedly having the presidency stolen from him by Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. ,
Speaking on Tuesday, Zyuganov said: “Most of all, we need maximum mobilization of our strength and resources” in order to win what he called a “war” against the US, Europe and NATO.
His Communist comrade Mikhail Matveev had caused controversy when he suggested that deputies and governors sign up to the front as volunteers a day earlier.
Mikhail Degtyarev of Khabarovsk, who was at the Eastern Economic Forum had complained to RIA Novosti that he wanted to volunteer to fight in Ukraine. However, he could not resign. Degtyarev is part of the Liberal Democratic Party. This loyal Kremlin faction was once led by Vladimir Zhirinovksy (an ultranationalist who died in April).
Residents from his Far East region quickly started a petition to help Degtyarev fulfill his dream of fighting in the Donbass. Degtyarev has not yet to resign, despite having signed the petition by tens or thousands of people.
‘Harming Russia’s Future and Its Citizens’
Although the liberal side of politics is also critical of the war effort, many of its senior leaders have been exiled or arrested.
Ksenia Thorstrom, a St. Petersburg councillor, shared an earlier this week a petition calling for Putin’s resignation. It had been signed in Moscow by two dozen liberal councillors. It said that the Moscow municipal deputies of Russia believe President Vladimir Putin’s actions are detrimental to Russia’s future and its citizens.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo
Representatives from St Petersburg’s Smolninskoye Region called on federal lawmakers to open an investigation into Putin’s treason to expel him from office. This was in response to his launching of the invasion against Ukraine.
The authorities’ swift response against the liberals was not like the other political factions. The Smolninskoye District Court ordered that the municipal council be disbanded, and later charged the deputies of “discrediting” Russia’s military.
Nikita Yuferev (Councilor) was sent to prison and fined after attaching his signature to the petition. He tweeted: “Now, the Governor of St. Petersburg will decide if we are to be dispersed to hell or not.”
The public discourse has changed dramatically in the seven months since the war started.
Aleksei Gorinov (a Moscow-based municipal councilor) was sentenced to seven year imprisonment in April after he lightheartedly criticised the invasion by Ukraine during a discussion regarding a children’s drawing contest.
A fractured alliance
The Kremlin has had difficult relations with fringe ultranationalists, who can be difficult to control, despite all the efforts of authorities to infiltrate them. In 2001, the National Bosheviks (a group led by Eduard Limonov, a writer and dissident) were arrested for plotting to infiltrate Kazakhstan by ethnic Russians. Limonov, who was later arrested, denied all charges.
Since 2014, nationalists like Girkin had been advocating for Russia to conquer more territory to create “Novorossiya”—a notional territory that encompasses eight Ukrainian oblasts, including the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and much of eastern and southern Ukraine. Putin’s invasion in Ukraine was intended to protect Russian speakers living in the eastern provinces, and to promote what he called “de-Nazification” urgently necessary for the country.
Erin Trieb, Insider
Putin was more committed to their cause than his February Security Council meeting, which was held just days prior to the invasion to rubber stamp recognition that Crimea and Donbass were independent states.
Putin almost declared war against Ukraine by warning Kyiv that they would “enforce bloodshed” if it didn’t stop violence against ethnic Russians in its east.
Putin made each member on the Security Council say whether they supported this controversial decision in extraordinary footage that was broadcast from a Kremlin marble hallway.
After being quizzed by Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin groaned and said that he did. Sergey Naryshkin was head of Russia’s fearsome foreign intelligence service.
The invasion and political theatre convinced the ultra-nationalists of the fact that Putin and the ruling class were now on their side.
The democratic stooge
On state-controlled TV talk shows, you can see the shifts in Russia’s debate over the past few days and weeks. A few months ago, a commentator could have been arrested for calling the Russian action against Ukraine “war” rather than Putin’s “special military operation”. However, legislators now openly state this point.
NTV and Rossiya-1 panel discussions have always featured a token democratic stooge, who is kicked out of every position for being a NATO apologist or in the pockets of the US. But panelists or hosts can’t silence this lone voice in face of Russia’s military setbacks.
Boris Nadezhdin (liberal Moscow municipal deputy) appeared on NTV’s talk show to declare that “it is absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using the resources and colonial warfare methods with which Russia is trying.”
Nadezhdin was a former ally of Boris Nemtsov who was murdered. He called for peace negotiations to stop the war. However, these talks were interrupted by Sergey Mironov of the pro-Kremlin party, the Just Russia party. Mironov declared that there can be no negotiations with “Zelenksy’s Nazi regime,” and that the only option is that it’s destroyed.
The debate quickly erupted into an actual debate. Another participant seemed to be backing Nadezhdin, highlighting the military’s failures.
Compare that clip to a Nadezhdin appearance on the same show in April when other participants cheered him for suggesting that the Soviet Union had “occupied Czechoslovakia” and Eastern Europe.
Nadezhdin is corrected by one of the panelists: “We didn’t occupy anybody, we freed them.”
Vladimir Solovyov, a leading propagandist, was asking why Nadezhdin wasn’t sent to jail on Thursday. One of his guests on Rossiya-1 bravely weighs in. He suggested that there must have been many people who think just like Nadezhdin, if he is free “to speak it on a federal television channel.”
To this, Solovyov, who has been sanctioned and had his Italian villa seized, quipped that if Russia is democratic, it may be a sign that the Kremlin’s control over the media — a key pillar in Putin’s power vertical — is weakening.
Dmitri lovetsky/AP Photo
Russia has a history of radical hawks using the media to test radical policies.
What’s different about this moment is that a growing number of these figures are now off-leash — openly undermining Putin and warning that he will be replaced if he does not order more extreme action against Ukraine.
Russia is not as familiar with the widespread purgings of journalists and liberals that took place in the early days in the Ukraine war. But cracking down on ultra- nationalists is more dangerous and may have dire consequences – especially if Russia loses the war.
While you wait, the Russian economyIs slowly moving towards Brezhnev’s era zastoi (stagnation), Russians are fed-up with rising grocery prices, being unpaid and being prevented from travelling to the West.
Maxim said that people are trying to keep their heads down and block out the news. He declined to reveal his full name for security reasons.
“Some of my friends lost their jobs and everyone is tightening his belts. Any mobilization would be the tipping point because nobody here wants to fight this stupid war – apart from the raving nationalists.”
