Russia is going through a difficult streak on the front of the war in Ukraine. On the ground, the Russian army is retreating, and the dispute is rising internally against the command, unable to properly equip the new mobilized. As often in Russia, these criticisms, more and more direct, first go through social networks. In dozens of videos, we see and hear soldiers on their own, like here at Belgorod station, in this video published on the site The Insider.
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“We have to buy our food“, “training is zero“, “the attitude of the officers is brutal“, can we hear in the complaints of these mobilized. In recent days, a large number of videos show soldiers sleeping on the tiles in dilapidated buildings, soldiers who are asked to buy everything, including first aid kits.”Ask your wives to send you tampons to seal the wounds“, says in one of them an instructor, specifying “don’t laugh, guys“.”All the army gives you is a uniform and a weapon, that’s all“, she specifies.
Unbelievable video. Russian officer telling newly mobilized men they will need to source their own sleeping bags, med packs. Tell them to go buy tampons from pharmacies to use as bandages.
“The only thing the army gives you in uniforms, armor. That’s it.”pic.twitter.com/zwttL586zu— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) September 27, 2022
The exasperation reaches even the most fervent defenders of power, like the famous propagandist presenter Vladimir Sololyov, who launched into a diatribe of the army command. “I am tired of receiving messages saying that the mobilized must buy their equipment with their money. What is that ? Where are the uniforms? Where are the boots? Where are the helmets? Where are the bulletproof vests?he gets annoyed. Why does a mobilized man, a hero, have to buy what he needs? If there are traitors to our homeland, thieves, Ukrainian spies in the highest echelons of power, take them and put them in jail!”
As often in Russia, when this kind of criticism of power goes up, they spare its highest heads. The logic is to alert Vladimir Putin that his administration is failing. Thus, they spare the head of the Kremlin, but they aim more directly at the general staff of the army. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, for example, criticizes them for not going into the field to support their men. In response, General Lapin, one of the commanders of the Russian army in Ukraine, immediately went to have his picture taken on the front line.
There are therefore clearly dissensions important and struggles at the top of power. At the end of the chain, the one who is targeted is the Minister of Defense Sergeï Choïgou. The pressure on him is growing, even if he is close to Vladimir Putin.