Are there really “internal forces of resistance” that allegedly “sabotage” the ecological mechanism? Putin continue activist-type actions taken from what we used to call “anarchist elements” on Russian soil?

Mikhail Podolyak, chief adviser to the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, he tweeted on Wednesday. “Ukraine does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said, disclaiming any responsibility for the two drones that “attacked” the Kremlin hours earlier. However, he went on to stress that the Russian “militants” operate within Russian borders and cause headaches with their actions in the “Putin company”, which began to “lose control.” True or not in terms of content, Podolyak’s tweet had a clear propaganda purpose.

Inner front

A few hours later, the Russian Foreign Ministry itself came with a statement to condemn “unprecedented” scope, which has now acquired “terrorist actions” and “attempts of sabotage” within Russian borders. Thus, the Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledges that the problem does not exist on the Ukrainian front, but inside the Russian Federation, while emphasizing that these “sabotage” and “terrorist attacks” are not Russians, but the Ukrainian army.

Apart from propaganda complaints here and there on the Russian-Ukrainian border, it is now generally accepted that there have been attacks on Russian territory in recent months, mostly with drones and explosives.

Beyond her murders Daria Duginain August 2022 in Moscow, and office. Vladlen Tatarskyin April 2023, there were also attacks in St. Petersburg – using drones, explosives, incendiary devices, Molotov cocktails, or just hammers and screwdrivers – that seem to escalate over time, mainly against energy or transport infrastructure: in Krasnodar (fires in fuel depots), Bryansk (train crash), Vladimir, Krasnoyarsk (sabotage on the railway), Kolomna about 100 km from Moscow, Belgorod (fires in fuel depots, sabotage on the railway, attacks on communication facilities), in Ryazanskaya and Saratov regions (against military facilities), in St. Petersburg (against power lines), etc.

Usually low-intensity and geographically “scattered”, these attacks, taken as a whole, represent a model, if not resistance, then reaction within Russian borders after about 14 months of war.

Questions

Who is behind these attacks? Are there Russian dissidents who have not yet fled abroad? Are there pro-Ukrainian or pro-Western cores within Russia?

In the international media (Al Jazeera, France24, BBC Russian, Unherd, Sky News, Evening Standard, etc.) in recent months, topics have been raised about group action type “anarcho-communist” BOAC“antiwar” Stop Wagons (STW)and far right Russian Volunteer Corpswho allegedly carried out acts of sabotage on the territory of Russia against the backdrop of war in Ukraine.

“Russian saboteurs seek to interfere with Putin’s military machine […] Anti-Putin activists try to slow down Russia’s war in Ukraine […] In Russia and Belarus, a secret network of activists is doing everything possible to slow down the Russian war machine,” Niko Vorobyov wrote in Al Jazeera last January, focusing on the actions of “anarcho-communists.” BOAC who refuses Russian invasion of Ukraine as “imperialist” and ideologically in conflict with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRO).

“A Russian anti-war group blew up a railway line to disrupt the invasion of Ukraine,” Michael Drummond wrote in Sky News last October, looking at the group. Stop wagons (STW), whose action was also mentioned by the British Ministry of Defense.

“The Russian military mainly relies on rail transport to deploy forces in Ukraine, but with a network spanning over 33,000 kilometers and mostly passing through isolated regions, the (Russian) system is extremely difficult to defend against threats. The Russian leadership will become increasingly concerned about the possibility of sabotage even by small groups of civilians, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement last October.

The latest military intelligence report on the situation in Ukraine is October 26, 2022.

Learn more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/sjWLyEfmxf

🇺🇦 #StopWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Ct2pdrwjTp

— Ministry of Defense 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 26, 2022

Almost seven months later, news comes from Russia about train derailments in the Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine…

Retaliation, penalties and instrumentalization

The question is, how will the Russian leadership react to this? It really worries Kremlin about cases of sabotage within Russian borders, or is he rubbing his hands in anticipation of other kinds of benefits?

Against the backdrop of all these sabotage, and still fresh in memory, the images of two drones that appeared over the Kremlin, in the sky over Moscow early on Wednesday morning, May 3, the side of President Putin could try to remobilize Russian public opinion in favor of war in view of a new round of mobilization, despite dead Russian soldiers who, after 14 months of fighting, number in the tens of thousands, according to Western sources, but which the Kremlin rejects.

“Now the question is whether Russia will use this incident (including two drones in the Kremlin) to justify new and even more deadly strikes on Ukraine,” Anton Troyanovsky wrote yesterday in the New York Times.

However, Putin himself is reminded that a few days ago he gave the green light to an increase in prison terms (from 15 to 20) for those found guilty of sabotage and/or terrorist acts in Russia.

In the same context, it is recalled that as recently as last February, a Belarusian court sentenced two men, 28-year-old Dmitry Klimov and 27-year-old Vladimir Aramchev, to 22 years in prison for participating in acts of violence. sabotage against the railway network aimed at slowing down the movement of Russian troops in the country.

Tonight, an explosive device went off on a railway in the Bryansk region (Russia) between Novozybkov and Zlynka, about 20 kilometers from the border with Belarus. As you can see in the photo, the rail and several sleepers are damaged.
1/4 pic.twitter.com/d1N9m6YOJN

— Belarusian project Hajun (@Hajun_BY) October 24, 2022

Against the background of what happened before, what Vladimir Putin will announce next Tuesday, May 9, amid the celebration of the Soviet “Victory Day” over Nazi Germany, is now expected with “renewed” interest.