Russian pro-war nationalists led by Igor Girkin, a former FSB agent convicted in The Hague of downing flight MH17 in 2014, announced on Friday that a new group they have formed, the Angry Patriots Club, is entering politics to “save” Russia, warning that the country is at risk of unrest or even collapse due to military failures in the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Almost 15 months after Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine as part of what he called a “special military operation”, Moscow says it has not yet achieved all of its objectives as its forces prepare to face a counteroffensive by Ukrainians who are armed with the support of the United States. and NATO.

A Russian ultra-nationalist group known as the “Club of Angry Patriots” has announced that it is entering politics as an opposition party – without any official or unofficial guidance from the Kremlin – even though it sees Putin as the only real guarantor of stability in Russia. modern.

The club was founded on March 17.

“A systemic crisis is being prepared in Russia”

Girkin, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and later organized a pro-Russian militia in eastern Ukraine, said his group hopes to prevent Russia from collapsing.

“Russia is preparing for a systemic crisis – or already experiencing a crisis – while the temperature in society is rising,” Girkin told Reuters. “We are on the threshold of very serious domestic political changes of a catastrophic nature,” he warns.

“All sane forces must create organizations that will participate in the political battle that is inevitable and has already begun,” Girkin said.

In Putin’s Russia, ultra-nationalist politicians and bloggers are increasingly taking on the role of criticizing the military leadership, which they say has been collapsing through incompetence, corruption and even betrayal since the start of the war.

The Kremlin did not comment on Girkin’s move. Putin, who is expected to run for president in 2024, is convinced that the “special military operation” will achieve all its goals.

Asked by Reuters whether it would be naive to think he could announce such a political move in Putin’s Russia without the Kremlin’s approval, Girkin, 52, said: “I want to believe you don’t think I’m a naive person.”

The battle for the “post-Putin” era has begun

Girkin says that it is obvious that the battle for the “post-Putin” era has already begun in the Russian elite.

“No matter how much I criticize Putin, he is currently the only legitimate figure in the Russian Federation,” Girkin said. If Putin is removed from power, “it would mean the collapse of Russia,” he warned.

Girkin, who does not recognize Ukraine as a sovereign state and says most of it is part of Russia, says Russia will lose the war if it doesn’t fire its high command, “thieves” and “incompetents,” and he doesn’t start fighting much more seriously.

“If the current situation continues, we will be defeated in this war,” Girkin says, adding that Russia’s victory will be achieved only if Ukrainian statehood is eliminated and Russia controls cities, including Kyiv.

Russia, which is threatened by the West

Echoing Putin’s idea, Girkin said the West wants to destroy Russia and stage a coup to bring to power Western-backed politicians who will plunder Russia’s natural resources and destroy Russia’s Slavic culture.

“There will be no compromise: the war will end either with the Russian flag over Kiev, or with the defeat of Russia with the aim of its partial occupation, disarmament and annulment of sovereignty,” Girkin proclaims.

He says his group has little money and no major financial backers, and that he had to raise enough money to announce his entry into politics, an event held under maximum security in a Soviet-era Moscow hotel built for the 1980 Olympics. .

Other leaders of the group include President Pavlo Gubarev, a pro-Russian fighter from Eastern Ukraine, as well as Yuri Yevych, a military doctor, and Mykhailo Axel, a former member of Eduard Limonov’s “Other Russia” movement, a writer and politician who died in 2020, who at 90 founded the National Bolshevik Party.

“Our task is to help our country avoid future disturbances and create the positions on the basis of which we will act in these turbulences in order to prevent the destruction of Russia as a state and as a unique civilization,” Girkin said.

Also known as Ihor Strelkov, Girkin was convicted in absentia by a Dutch court last year of murder for his role in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, a tragedy that killed 298 people. Although the sentence passed is life imprisonment, he denies his involvement in the incident. (news.ro)

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