DW: Russian war bloggers: Pawns in a political game?
Some Russian bloggers have been openly criticizing Moscow's military leadership, while anti-war protesters face severe penalties. But is that just part of a political ploy?
Right-wing pro-Russian military bloggers, also known as milbloggers, have been using the messaging platform Telegram to voice their fury over what happened in Makiivka. A post on "Grey Zone," a channel that has been linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group, a private military company, read: "
As expected, the blame for what happened in Makiivka began to be placed on the soldiers themselves. You see, they turned their phones on and got spotted. Of course, the enemy has these capabilities and sometimes he uses them. But in this case, it is to 99% a lie and an attempt to throw off the blame."
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WNU Editor: Pro-Russian military bloggers have been nothing but vocal since the start of the war. But aside their bombastic reporting, I have also found them to be (surprisingly) a fairly accurate source of information on the war.
But while they criticize everything and everyone in this war, there is an exception to the rule. They do not criticize President Putin.
I'm sure the military bloggers appreciate the Putin rubles...cash....to be part of the man's personal disinformation campaign.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure many of these mil-bloggers criticize Putin in their head, but know perfectly well that they are not allowed to do so in public. Putin likes to play "if only the Tsar knew" card, and as such allows criticism to reach underlings that he thinks he can safely dispose of if needed. For now they serve useful functions as a lightning rod.
ReplyDeleteBut that can only work so long. Simply because nobody mentions Putin by name does not mean people are not associating Putin directly with the Russian military failures. He has ruled Russia for more than twenty years. He owns any systemic failures. As there are more and more mistakes, failures, defeats, and even higher casualties, the bullseye of criticism gets closer and closer to him even without mentioning him by name. There simply has not yet been a critical mass to launch widespread protests. It'll be interesting to see at what point that happens.
Chris
Public disagreement is quite widespread. Girkin is a prime example.
ReplyDeletePutin has two internal battles he has to deal with. One is a military culture that is conservative and protective in nature. This is a common problem in most traditional militaries around the world. Bad news does not go forward as it should.
Second, he is dealing with a post soviet culture. yes it has been 20 years. it might take another 50 to shrug off that "cover your butt" culture they developed there.
So if he is saying , "I did not know," it is maybe he is not lying.
You see the same thing in the USA. No one at the higher levels wants to take responsibility for failures or criticize broken woke programs even though they see with their own eyes that these programs are helping to rot the system. They stay silent as the system is slowing grinding to a halt.
Look what happened to Trump. People on his own high level staff and lower staff basically worked against him. A classic was that idiot Col Vindman and the DoS.
BTW Just look at those mil blogs . they are not saying "peace now" or "lets negotiate". ....a lot are saying bomb them all now.... or go to full mobilization and take NATO out while we can.
Be carfull what you wish for.