Nearly 9 months into Russia’s war against Ukraine, it appears a few of Vladimir Putin’s strongmen are laying the groundwork to desert ship.
A human rights group that works intently with Russian inmates and investigates abuses by the safety providers has reportedly obtained a flood of calls from members of those self same safety providers desperately attempting to flee.
Gulagu.internet, based by Vladimir Osechkin, stories that the closing straw seems to have been the brutal sledgehammer-execution video launched by Russia’s non-public military final week—a stomach-churning extrajudicial killing that the Kremlin politely averted its eyes from whereas the Putin-linked businessman considered behind makes use of it for his personal PR marketing campaign.
“The reprisal with the use of a sledgehammer and the cruelty of [Wagner Group founder Yevgeny] Prigozhin, with the tacit consent of Putin, had an unexpected effect: for the third day, there is a steady stream of messages to the Gulagu.net hotline from employees of the Interior Ministry, the [Investigative Committee], the FSB and the [Federal Protective Service], the Federal Bailiff Service, etc., who want to leave the territory of lawlessness and cruelty,” Gulagu.internet reported.
While rumblings of discontent amongst the Russian safety providers have been reported all through the battle, frustrations have reportedly boiled over as Putin is more and more seen as dropping all management.
In lower than two weeks, there was Russia’s humiliating retreat from Kherson—the Ukrainian territory that Putin and so a lot of his mouthpieces had vowed can be a part of Russia “forever.” Then got here the brutal execution video by members of the Wagner Group, the identical non-public military that, by all accounts, has been entrusted with bringing victory to Putin by any means mandatory.
(Despite mounting requires an investigation into the execution, the Kremlin has dismissed it as “not our business,” leaving it to Wagner Group overlord Yevgeny Prigozhin to supply a flurry of fantastical explanations for the homicide clearly aimed toward trolling.)
And then got here the Russian-made missile that landed in Poland this week, killing two farmers there shortly after related missiles fired by Russia reduce down Ukrainian civilians in the newest bombardment. While Western officers have since walked back their claims that the Polish farmers had been killed by a missile fired by Russia, the incident initially appeared prone to set off a direct confrontation between Russia’s navy and NATO forces.
And that reportedly left some inside the Russian safety providers so shaken they had been ready to take away Putin from energy fully.
That’s in accordance with unconfirmed reporting by the Telegram channel General SVR, an nameless channel that claims to be run by a former member of the safety providers.
“The incident with a missile hitting Poland on Tuesday almost became a prologue to the seizure of power in Russia,” the channel reported Thursday, claiming that high-ranking safety officers had gathered in the speedy aftermath of the strike for “informal consultations.”
“Knowing Putin’s penchant for raising the stakes through escalation, … this group of security officials quickly became convinced that in response to a Russian strike on a country included in NATO there could be both a retaliatory strike and an ultimatum.”
So, in accordance with the channel, they determined that “if the U.S. leadership and the adjoining countries show readiness for a harsh response, then the best way out would be to remove the current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from power and create a collegial council of security officials to ‘temporarily’ take control of the country into their own hands … blaming all the problems on either a seriously ill or law-breaking president.”
Noting that Putin has introduced pressure “to almost the limit,” the channel warned: “This time, the critical situation turned out to be illusory and it made no sense for the security forces to take risks, but next time, and there will be a next time, Putin may not have a chance.”
While panic over the missile incident has largely fizzled out, the identical can’t be mentioned for Prigozhin’s rising affect in the battle and position in the highlight. A former member of the safety providers who fled the nation advised Deutsche Welle late final month that issues had been rising inside federal businesses about the energy given to some figures inside Putin’s inside circle.
“The state is not thinking about its people, it’s only thinking about itself and its close associates,” she mentioned, describing them as “gangsters.”
Perhaps in an indication of issues to return, Putin on Thursday appeared to sign he has no plans to hearken to any of the extra average figures who may warning him towards escalation. Instead, he purged the Kremlin’s Human Rights Council of all the specialists who raised questions on the battle and the public execution of defector Yevgeny Nuzhin, changing them with a hardliner battle reporter and different Kremlin loyalists.
According to RTVI, citing a supply in the human rights council, the head of the council is unlikely to hunt an investigation into the sledgehammer killing or become involved in any method as a result of he mentioned that in occasions of battle “anything can happen.”