-Analysis-
Since the Ukrainian military crossed the Russian border, Z-channels have not only covered the progress of the battles but also sought those responsible for the breakthrough of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Why did the fortifications fail to slow Ukraine’s advance — especially if 15 billion rubles ($170,000) were spent on them? The former governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, is to blame.
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Why did the Russian military allow such a build-up of Ukrainian equipment and troops on the border? Why didn’t they notice it and prevent it? The Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov is to blame; he was informed of the enemy’s plans and “brushed them aside.”
Why do state TV channels and other media continue to talk about full-scale battles on Russian territory as an unfortunate misunderstanding in the third week of the invasion? Where are those responsible for information policy? Only one question remains unasked: What about the, what’s-his-name, president?
Of course, Vladimir Putin‘s behavior since fighting in Kursk region began is not surprising: Since the first months of his rule, everyone knows that in emergency situations, he always disappears. He first went to Azerbaijan, then visited North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Chechnya. He watched Adam Kadyrov shoot a rifle, tasted the famous apple pastila, went “to the people” in Vladikavkaz, and even met with three specially selected mothers from Beslan.
During this time, if he spoke about the battles in the Kursk region, Putin did so exclusively in protocol phrases that had no practical meaning. Again, that is not surprising.
What is surprising is the impression an outside observer might form if he tried used only Z-channels to understand how the modern Russian state is structured. On the one hand, modern Russia is an authoritarian regime; only one person, Putin, holds all the power. He stands at the top of the “vertical of power” and decides all issues in the country: from the launch of a “special military operation” to the issue of “forming mobile boiler houses in the territories bordering Ukraine.”
Yet when events of a truly historic scale take place in Russia, it is out of the question to place the responsibility on that person, who is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The question is not even raised in this way.
Only heroic deeds
How did Starovoit, who failed to organize Kursk’s defense, become governor — in this authoritarian system with fictitious elections? It is unclear. Who appointed him to this position? That’s a strange question. He probably appointed himself.
And why is the General Staff headed by Gerasimov, who is obviously incompetent in matters of war? Whose responsibility is it? They probably vanished into thin air.
They reverently call him “the Supreme One”, “the Darkest One”…
Summarizing all the complaints of the Z-authors during the war: How did it happen that the entire system is built around corruption and incompetence, where any achievement is possible only in spite of, and not thanks to? Where did all those people come from? For whom is this army, largely supported by volunteers, fighting? The late Z-author Andrey “Murz” Morozov gave a short, yet concise answer to these questions: “All this shit happened on its own.”
Z-channel authors often write about Putin. They reverently call him “the Supreme One”, “the Darkest One”, or, following the practice introduced by Margarita Simonyan, simply “the Boss”. But the Boss can only perform heroic deeds. And, most importantly, he can never and under no circumstances be held responsible for failures.
Prigozhin’s sins
Last week, Z-authors remembered Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash a year ago. Practically a sacred figure for most representatives of the military community, Prigozhin died under the strangest possible circumstances.
Putin himself, commenting on the death of his comrade, first said that fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of Prigozhin and Utkin, and then complained that “no tests were conducted to determine the presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood of the deceased.”
Did the Z-authors believe Putin? No. Do they understand who is responsible for Prigozhin’s sudden death? Undoubtedly, yes. But at the same time, in a series of ceremonial texts on the anniversary, there is not even a hint of Putin’s responsibility for Prigozhin’s death; Z-channels are afraid to even formulate the question that way.
Prigozhin did not betray the country, the president and the people.
“A year later, people say how much they miss the leader that Prigozhin was and continue to bring flowers to his grave. And now, a year later, I clearly see that Russia has lost a strong iron fist… I want to finish this post, which is a tribute to his memory, with a phrase from Prigozhin became truly popular during the war: it is better to die a hero than live as a f**,” writes the author of the RosgVardeets channel.
“I hope that the real traitors will pay with their blood for deceiving the president’s trust, for trying to sell out the country and for the many victims their criminal actions have led to,” Anastasia Kashevarova sobbed.
“The memory of heroes lives on. The heroes are alive. And Prigozhin is alive! He did not betray the country, the president and the people,” concludes Yana Poplavskaya, former Red Riding Hood and now one of the most bloodthirsty priestesses of war.
Unspoken taboo
People who have been reading Z-channels systematically and for a long time know very well that there is an unspoken but very strict taboo on discussing and, especially, criticizing Putin’s decisions.
It was because he violated that taboo that “hero of the Russian spring” Igor Strelkov was sent to jail. No one touched him when he criticized the military leadership that “lives on the planet of pink ponies.” But as soon as he began to express doubts about the Supreme Commander, Comrade Major immediately turned his close attention to him.
Today, if a Z-channel criticizes Putin, it is a guarantee that the author lives abroad. The author of Alex Parker Returns, who, according to his own words, lives in Canada (it is impossible to confirm or deny this), or Strelkov’s associate Lev Vershinin, who lives in Spain, can write in this way.
Only Z-authors from the insidious NATO countries can afford such frankness.
“It is clear that the main responsibility lies with Pypa (*an offensive name for Putin), who continues to keep the drunken war leader [Gerasimov] in the General Staff, fearing that the army will turn into a political factor threatening his personal power under another charismatic and clever Chief of the General Staff as it happened with musicians and Prigozhin,” one can write so frankly from Canada.
This is how one can write from distant Spain: “One gets the impression that Kursk is simply not interesting to the president. For two weeks, he has not addressed the nation, has not expressed direct words of support to the residents of the Kursk region, has not visited Kursk, has not met with refugees, has not listened to their complaints or requests for help.” Only Z-authors from the insidious NATO countries can afford such frankness.
More than fear
The text from Kursk region about Gerasimov’s report and Putin’s reaction is much different: “The video has no sound, but a lot is clear from the president’s facial expression. I saw both distrust of what he heard and discontent, because perhaps what he heard does not coincide with what the Supreme knows from other channels,” writes Roman Alekhin, a well-known Z-author and advisor to the Kursk region’s acting governor.
The easiest way to explain such a reality is through fear. In an authoritarian state, it is strange to expect anything else. The article for “discrediting the army” apparently does not apply to Z-channels for some unknown reason, but criticism of Putin, as I wrote above, is strictly forbidden. Few people want to take risks; their unwillingness to go to jail is completely understandable. But it seems to me that this is not just about fear.
Faith by its very definition gives hope.
Faith — in the religious sense of the word — in Putin is the basis of the worldview of the war supporters. Faith in his infallibility, in his wisdom, in his deep understanding of the situation. Faith that individual defeats and miscalculations are not accidental, and that the Supreme has a plan that ordinary people simply cannot understand. Faith that everything is not in vain.
That is the most important thing: sacrifices that are made, including human sacrifices, were not made in vain, because the Darkest One knows what he is doing. Because if a believer were to allow even the slightest doubt, even for a second, about the competence of the Boss, his whole world would collapse. If He is wrong, why did I follow Him? Who am I after this? What was it all for?
The categorical unwillingness to ask these questions significantly outweighs the fear of repression. After all, faith by its very definition gives hope.
And what about the fighting in Kursk: How could He allow it? Well, he did not. All this shit happened on its own.
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