**Putin has a new opposition, and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine**
*A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats.*
A new Russian protest movement is coalescing, but it’s neither pro-democracy nor anti-war. Instead, it’s the most extreme of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters, who have grown increasingly furious at the unfolding military disaster for Russia in the six-month-long war in Ukraine.
They want Putin to escalate the war, use more devastating weapons, and hit Ukrainian civilians even more mercilessly. And they’ve openly attacked the Russian military and political leadership for supposedly holding back Russia’s full might – even as they rarely mention Putin by name.
Their push to escalate the war, including widespread demands to use nuclear weapons, is dangerous in itself. But by creating a fantasy world in which a supposedly all-powerful Russian army is being defeated by domestic enemies – instead of by superior Ukrainian soldiers fighting for their own land with modern tactics and Western weapons – the movement has potentially disturbing implications for a postwar and possibly post-Putin Russia.
Okay please Putin stay in power for now these new guys are even more scary
Even supporters of the war in Russia now accuse Putin of this. They say that it was not necessary to show off and convince its own population for many years that the russian army is the strongest and will take over the whole of Ukraine in a matter of days. People who believed this, now faced with serious defeats of the Russian army, still believe that the russian army is the strongest, and therefore begin to think that either the russian authorities are incompetent and unable to manage this very army, or they “made a secret deal with Ukraine”.
Inb4 defenestration
He will just pull the yeltsin move declare state of emergency and shoot at the parlament with tanks
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Full article in thread.
**Putin has a new opposition, and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine**
*A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats.*
A new Russian protest movement is coalescing, but it’s neither pro-democracy nor anti-war. Instead, it’s the most extreme of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters, who have grown increasingly furious at the unfolding military disaster for Russia in the six-month-long war in Ukraine.
They want Putin to escalate the war, use more devastating weapons, and hit Ukrainian civilians even more mercilessly. And they’ve openly attacked the Russian military and political leadership for supposedly holding back Russia’s full might – even as they rarely mention Putin by name.
Their push to escalate the war, including widespread demands to use nuclear weapons, is dangerous in itself. But by creating a fantasy world in which a supposedly all-powerful Russian army is being defeated by domestic enemies – instead of by superior Ukrainian soldiers fighting for their own land with modern tactics and Western weapons – the movement has potentially disturbing implications for a postwar and possibly post-Putin Russia.
Okay please Putin stay in power for now these new guys are even more scary
Even supporters of the war in Russia now accuse Putin of this. They say that it was not necessary to show off and convince its own population for many years that the russian army is the strongest and will take over the whole of Ukraine in a matter of days. People who believed this, now faced with serious defeats of the Russian army, still believe that the russian army is the strongest, and therefore begin to think that either the russian authorities are incompetent and unable to manage this very army, or they “made a secret deal with Ukraine”.
Inb4 defenestration
He will just pull the yeltsin move declare state of emergency and shoot at the parlament with tanks