How to explain that Russian military bloggers reveal unflattering information for Russians?
Russian military bloggers, ultra-nationalist and pro-war, do not hesitate to publish information critical of the Russian Ministry of Defense, because they believe that the latter has a too soft and insufficiently structured approach to the war in Ukraine. Their influence is growing in the Russian media space, where they regularly speak. Last October, these bloggers obtained the departure of Colonel General Alexandre Lapin from his post as commander of the “central” group of forces in Ukraine, held responsible for the Ukrainian reconquest of part of the Donbass in September.
According to the latest ISW reportthe unflattering information about Bakhmout may be a way for the siloviki (“those responsible from the security and military apparatus”) and the warmongering movement (which brings together military bloggers, but also the boss and financier of the Wagner militia, Evgueni Prigojine, and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov) of “to put in place the information conditions that will justify the nationalization of the resources of the oligarchs to finance the Russian war effort”.
A little music that seems to have been heard in the Kremlin, according to the ISW, which recalls that, on December 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin indirectly attacked Russian oligarchs, declaring that the Russians who drain the money of Russia from abroad and have no connection with the country “represent a danger” for Russia. In the early 2000s, Vladimir Putin had already nationalized large companies to consolidate his authoritarian kleptocracy. He could try to use nationalization, this time to coerce elites into backing his war in Ukraine or seizing their assets to fund his military spending.