On Saturday, September 10, as Russian forces retreated hastily from northeastern Ukraine – after suffering a series of the most humiliating military defeats since the start of the war – the Russian president was in a park of Moscow where he inaugurated a Ferris wheel. “It is very important for people to be able to relax with friends and family,” recalled Vladimir Putin.
The contrast between the two images was stark, including for some of the president’s staunchest supporters. It highlighted the growing rift between the Kremlin and the staunchest supporters of invading Ukraine. For the latter, the Russian debacle seems to confirm their worst fears: the command is so concerned with maintaining an impression of normality in the daily life of the Russians that it has not committed the equipment and the personnel necessary to fight against a determined enemy.
“You are wasting billions of rubles on this celebrationwrites a pro-Russian blogger in a widely circulated post over the weekend, referring to the commemorations of 875e anniversary of the founding of Moscow. What is your problem ? Not during such a stampede.”
While Moscow is celebrating, he continued, Russian soldiers at the front lack night vision goggles, body armor, first aid kits and drones. A few hundred kilometers away, Ukrainian forces dislodged the Russians from their stronghold of Izium, continuing their meteoric advance in the northeast of the country and launching a whole new phase of the conflict.
Disgruntled elites?
The indignation which has risen since Saturday among the “hawks” – supporters of the Russian war – shows that even if President Putin has managed to muzzle almost all liberal and pro-democracy opposition in the Russian political landscape, he remains threatened by the discontent of the most conservative wing. For the moment, nothing indicates that this fringe of the population could see in the Ukrainian counter-offensive a reason to turn against Putin. However, specialists point out that this new propensity to publicly criticize the military command suggests a latent discontent among the country’s elites.
“Most of these people are amazed, they didn’t believe it was possible”explains Dmitri Kuznets, who covers the conflict for the Russian-language site Medusa.
“I think most of them are genuinely angry.”
As usual, the Kremlin is trying to
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