Recent defeats by Russian forces in Ukraine have sparked unexpected outbursts of anger among Russia’s elite, which still approves of the war but is irritated by the army’s lack of effectiveness and communication, with some going so far as to call for the execution of some soldiers, AFP reports.

Before the September setbacks, criticism of the armed forces was rare in the public arena, as the offensive against Ukraine was presented as a sacred patriotic mission, and defamation of Russian forces was punishable by heavy prison terms.

While no one in the so-called pro-Putin elite questions the wisdom of Moscow’s stance or the attack on its neighbor, military defeats and the failure to mobilize hundreds of thousands of reservists have prompted public figures, usually doctors, to attack the military hierarchy.

On Wednesday, the chairman of the lower house of parliament’s defense committee said the army should “stop lying” as it boasted in its daily briefings that it had inflicted huge losses on Ukrainian forces without mentioning its withdrawal.

“People know. Our people are not stupid. And they see that we do not want to tell them even a fraction of the truth. This can lead to a loss of trust,” said Andriy Kartapolov, a former general, in an interview with the Volodymyr online show. Solovyov, star presenter and ultra-patriotic figure in the Russian media space.

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Volodymyr Solovyov says that Ukrainians attack with taste and joy. Photo: Video

“shot themselves”

An EU-sanctioned commentator did not hold back this week, saying some in the military’s high command deserved to be shot.

“The guilty must be punished, unfortunately we do not have the death penalty, although for some it would be the only way out. They don’t even have a sense of honor as officers, because they don’t even shoot, Solovyov raged into the microphone, before rubbing his eyes in frustration for a long time.

Another example, Oleksandr Kots, the “Star Wars” reporter of the “Komsomolskaya Pravda” newspaper, stated in his Telegram channel that “there will be no good news (from the front) in the near future.”

The harshness of some comments and the defeatist sentiments of others are all the more striking as Vladimir Putin issued a decree annexing four Ukrainian regions, an event marked by a major concert in Red Square, where the Kremlin leader told a crowd waving Russian flags: “Victory will be ours.”

Of course, no criticism is directed at either the all-powerful head of state or his defense minister, Serhiy Shoigu. But when the ruler of Chechnya, the feared Ramzan Kadyrov, attacked Russian generals, called for nuclear weapons and suggested that the Russian president had been misinformed, the Kremlin had to respond.

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Russian soldiers in the city of Samara Photo: DreamsTime

“Sabotage”

“Emotions should be excluded in difficult moments (…) We prefer to make balanced and objective assessments (of situations),” answered the presidential spokesman Dmytro Peskov.

As for Vladimir Putin, he had to publicly admit “mistakes” made during the mobilization, against the background of an avalanche of documented cases of enlistment of people unfit for combat.

Largely decimated by the crackdown of the past two years and the imprisonment of its leader, Alexei Navalny, the opposition, which operates largely from abroad, wants to try to restructure itself in Russia, hoping to capitalize on or inflame popular discontent.

“Millions of people remain in Russia, they are hostages of Putin and do not want to fight. These people are gradually realizing that they need to act,” said Leonid Volkov, who is close to Navalny, announcing the restoration of the network on YouTube. activists in Russian regions.

“This struggle can take many forms, with different levels of risk: we can spread information, we can provide legal aid, we can volunteer, or we can sabotage the activities of military police stations, some of which are very good at burning,” he said. insisted

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