Russian general’s outburst is an earthquake for Vladimir Putin
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Major General Ivan Popov may not have intended his explosive farewell message to Russia’s 58th army to reach the public. It was first sent in private to a former general and MP in Putin’s party.
Major General Ivan Popov may not have intended his explosive farewell message to Russia’s 58th army to reach the public. It was first sent in private to a former general and MP in Putin’s party.
But whether he wanted to or not, he has exposed a mire of paranoia, mistrust, and resentment that if unaddressed could paralyse the Russian war machine.
Accusing the high command of a “stab in the back” in the middle of a major war – and just a few weeks after a mutiny nearly toppled the government – is on a whole other plane of insubordination.
Russia’s war effort has been plagued by grumbles about the top brass since the war began.
Early on, many of the frustrations of lower and mid-ranking officers and men got a public airing on semi-official war blogs.
Later Yevgeny Prigozhin, the now disgraced Wagner mercenary chief, emerged as a valve for anger at shortages of ammunition, poor logistics, and general incompetence.
The result was the 24-hour Wagner mutiny that came close to ending Vladimir Putin’s 23-year reign in the Kremlin.
Mr Putin survived. But the fact Prigozhin is still at large is proof enough that the president’s authority has suffered a fundamental fracture.
The initial grumble he claims got him fired – that his men were suffering high casualties from enemy artillery because of a lack of counter-battery fire – is standard fare in both the Ukrainian and Russian armies.
If he is telling the truth about his dismissal, it indicates a culture of paranoia and a toxic fear of delivering bad news up the chain of command.
History is littered with the corpses of armies with that problem.
Popov’s voice message has none of the hysteria that came to mark Prigozhin’s foul-mouthed rants.
He clearly feels a bond with his men, calling them his “dear gladiators” (a riff on classical history: his own callsign is Spartacus) and emphasising that he sees no difference between the highest general and lowliest private.
Disgruntled generals with loyal armies are dangerous, as the Kremlin was reminded last month.
Maj Gen Popov can expect to join the ranks of those purged in the aftermath of Prigozhin’s mutiny.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday at least 13 senior officers were detained for questioning, with some later released, and around 15 suspended from duty or fired following the attempted coup.
The corrosion runs both ways.
Popov apparently escaped unharmed.
But even before his stab in the back speech, some Russian military bloggers were asking who had the motive to leak his location to the enemy.
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