An influential Russian pro-war ‘military blogger’ has become the latest Vladimir Putin loyalist to turn on the Kremlin leader. It is another sign that President Putin’s grip on power is weakening as the war in Ukraine drags on.
Russian ‘military bloggers’ or milbloggers on Telegram are akin to social media influencers in Russia, as they push propaganda around the Russia–Ukraine war. However, over the weekend, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported the Kremlin was trying to censor several of them, amid a series of battlefield humiliations.
Several of them have refused to back down to this censorship and hit back in stinging criticism of the Kremlin.
One blogger, Yegor Guzenko, who has more than 300,000 subscribers on his Telegram channel, issued a scathing rebuke of Russia‘s handling of the war in several videos on Sunday. He said that “traitors are sitting in the Kremlin” and that “inconvenient people” who question the war’s success are being silenced.
He said: “Everything that is happening now is betrayal. Traitors sit in the Kremlin. That’s it.”
Mr Guzenko referenced the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as well as the jailed former Russian military commander Igor Girkin, who has strongly rebuked how the war in Ukraine has been handled.
Days before his arrest this year, Mr Girkin called President Putin a “cowardly mediocrity” and said Russia would not survive another presidential term under him.
Mr Guzenko remarked: “Panes fall, explosions occur, they remove the uncomfortable, they put them in jail. Traitors took over the country.”
In a daring direct challenge to the Kremlin, the military blogger said: “Well, why do you put us all in prison, kill us.
“There are a lot of us. We are a whole country. And you have a bunch sitting there.
“You are already old, you will die soon. And we are young. We will figure it out. And I will not change my opinion about this whole story.”
This comes as the war in Ukraine has been hitting home for many ordinary Russians.
The pressure has been mounting on President Putin since Ukraine‘s surprise incursion into the Kursk border region, seizing over 1,300 square kilometres of Russian territory.
Last night, a devastating attack, which involved 144 drones, struck several Russian cities, including Moscow.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the US and British intelligence agencies said that many of Vladimir Putin‘s closest allies are now “questioning” the Russian leader.
CIA director Bill Burns and MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore said that the “audacious” Ukrainian incursion into Russia‘s Kursk region had sparked panic and sown doubts in the Kremlin.