JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kremlin Must Placate Its Supporters Amid Outrage Over Kharkiv Retreat” – Carnegie Endowment for Endowment Peace

“Having radicalized Russian ultra-patriots with imperialist slogans and actions, the Kremlin now risks its most vitriolic supporters turning against it.”

“… Active Russian supporters of the war … blame their country’s military leadership …. demanding … Putin take decisive action … even questioning how serious his intentions in Ukraine really are. … [Invading] Ukraine, Putin won over … ultra-patriots and turned them into his fiercest supporters. … [R]adicaliz[ing] them with imperialist slogans and actions, the Kremlin now risks those most vitriolic supporters turning against it. Trying to appease them is … risky … alienat[ing] … [Russia’s] passive majority … which may support the ‘special operation,’ but certainly does not want to actually take part …. [T]he real scale of Russia’s retreat didn’t go unnoticed by ultra-patriot channels on … Telegram … describ[ing] it as a catastrophe … criticiz[ing] the Russian leadership, demanding the truth about the situation on the ground, purges in the army chain of command, and other radical measures such as a general mobilization and ‘all-out war.’ … [S]ubscrib[ers] to these channels ha[ve] grown significantly … some [with] … followings approaching the million mark. …”

Click here for: “Kremlin Must Placate Its Supporters Amid Outrage Over Kharkiv Retreat; Having radicalized Russian ultra-patriots with imperialist slogans and actions, the Kremlin now risks its most vitriolic supporters turning against it.” – Carnegie Endowment for Endowment Peace/ Andrey Pertsev