“The recent events in Russia should be studied very thoroughly by the administration of the Republic of Moldova and by its citizens. First of all, the efforts of the pro-Russian political parties and the mass media that support the narrative according to which the Republic of Moldova should not strengthen its armed forces and outfit these with modern equipment and armament provided by the Western partners should be countered by all methods...”
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Strength is in truth?
One week before the expiry of the July 1, 2023 deadline set by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the mandatory signing of contracts by private military companies (PMC), one of these – the Wagner Group – launched an armed rebellion. In several hours, the Wagner mercenaries took under control: Rostov city, all its military installations; branches of the police force; the General Staff of the Southern Military District of the Russian Army, which manages the operations of the military aggression in Ukraine. Practically, they took hostage the deputy minister of defense and the deputy of the General Staff Chief of the Russian Army, demanding that they should hand over Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and the General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov.
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as the chef of President Vladimir Putin, after occupying Rostov city, started to use the famous slogan Strength is in truth (Sila v Pravde), which Putin also used to justify the aggression against Ukraine and which became a mem and symbol of this, in particular letter V. Prigozhin’s truth is the following:
- The Russian army already lost huge areas of those that were occupied after the invasion of Ukraine;
- the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine is three-four times higher than the figure that is officially reported to the superiors and what is reported is ten times less than the press reports say;
- the daily sanitary losses are of about 1,000 people – killed, missing, injured and those who refuse to fight due to absence of munitions and to inappropriate organization;
- in 2014-2022, Donbas hadn’t been shelled; it was methodically robbed by persons from the presidential administration, from the FSB, by oligarchs etc.;
- the special operation launched on February 24, 2022 was aimed not at demilitarizing and degasifying Ukraine or at bringing back the Russian population from Ukraine home. It was started for different reasons, such as the obtaining of an additional decoration, an additional ornamental star for a particular person who is mentally ill – Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, who for the purpose destroyed the most trained part of the Russian armed forces;
- the assertion that Ukraine, supported by NATO, was preparing to attack Russia, has been false since the start;
- the real goal of the military operation was to install as President of Ukraine Putin’s relative Victor Medvedchuk, who was waiting for Russia to invade Ukraine and for President Zelensky to flee the country;
- in fact, in general, the war is being waged in the interests of oligarchic clans that are now governing in Russia.
- The Russian senior officials should descend from the Olympus and look for a way out of the situation they created as the whole Eastern Ukraine is populated by Russians, from genetic viewpoint, and the launched war kills these genetic Russians;
- Ukraine advances on our positions and we are washed in blood. Ammunition is not given to us, while the management of the operation is disastrous, hysterical, when the Chief of the General Staff, after drinking a glass of vodka, yells like a foul-mouthed person, like a pig in the telephone receiver, demanding to regain the lost positions;
- there are two agendas, a real one and one that is intended for President Putin. That’s why we daily hear about tens of Leopard tanks destroyed, 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed without any evidence;
- the administration of the Ministry of Defense intentionally misinforms President Putin etc.
This is actually the truth seen by Putin’s chef and for the sake of which he launched the rebellion, allegedly against the administration of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, not against his protector Vladimir Putin.
March for justice of little green men – broken flight
The attack of frankness of Putin’s chef precisely refers to: a) the deplorable state in which the Russian Army is; b) disastrous corruption that hugged Russia; c) corporate governance of the oligarchic clans in Russia; d) deliberate and systemic misinforming of President Vladimir Putin, who in fact does not known anything about the developments in the country and on the front. Allegedly, all these things are the blame of the Minister of Defense and the General Staff Chief, who recently visited Rostov and who the chef wanted to catch as military trophies. As his demand wasn’t satisfied, Prigozhin announced the launch of the March for justice to Moscow in order to clear the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of corrupt and incompetent people.
Despite President Putin’s call, who accused the chef of betrayal, and the starting of a criminal case against him, the March for justice didn’t meet with resistance on the part of the land forces. On the contrary, there were reported multiple cases of sympathy shown by militaries, police officers and citizenries with the Wagner fighters. At a certain moment, it seemed that it was a kind of deja vu – an action by little green men or polite people, inspired by the Putinist regime in 2014, in the process of annexing Crimea. It’s true that a series of airstrikes against the columns of the March for justice took place. However, in a strange way, Prigozhin’s mercenaries managed to defeat the air forces, destroying seven aircraft- six helicopters and a plane.
The most enigmatic moment in this adventure of Prigozhin is that after covering a distance of about 600 km within the triumphal March for justice during 24 hours, after conquering about 20 localities, including the cities of Rostov and Voronezh, the march was suddenly interrupted at about 200 km away from Moscow, in Yelets town. It reportedly happened after the Belarusian dictator Alexandr Lukashenko, who has known Prigozhibn for over 20 years and knew how to persuade him to interrupt the march, brokered a deal with him. In fact, there are a number of suppositions about the voluntary broken flight of Prigozhin’s fantasies. A version is the fear of Putin’s chef of an eventual success. On the one hand, he knows that according to Lenin, every female cook can govern the state, evidently after being trained, not to mention a male chef. On the other hand, he also knows that Putin hates Lenin for having created Ukraine and Putin also warned Prigozhin following his insurrection that by the rebellion of 1917, Lenin actually stole the tsarist regime’s victory in World War I.
In the aforementioned circumstances, it is presumed that the goal pursued by Prigozhin through the March of justice was to help his patron Putin to get rid of his incompetent company, not to topple him and to assume the risks of taking over power in a country with a population that is paralyzed by the fear of the Putinist authoritarian regime and is hypnotized by the exaggerated propaganda of this. It is believed that the replacement of the leadership of the military block of Putin’s administration can change the situation on the front in Ukraine in favor of Russia or can serve as a pretext for ending the war. In such circumstances, the whole blame for the aggression against Ukraine can be placed on the incompetent administration of the army and other institutions that lied to Putin. This version is supported also by the statements of Putin’s spokesman who announced the closing of the criminal case started against Prigozhin and the departure of this to Belarus, following the interruption of the March for justice. Does the closing of the criminal case after the destruction of seven aircraft of the Russian Army and, respectively, the killing of 13 pilots, sound convincing?!
Lessons for the Republic of Moldova
The recent events in Russia should be studied very thoroughly by the administration of the Republic of Moldova and by its citizens. First of all, the efforts of the pro-Russian political parties and the mass media that support the narrative according to which the Republic of Moldova should not strengthen its armed forces and outfit these with modern equipment and armament provided by the Western partners should be countered by all methods. The fact that Putinist Russia created tens of private military companies., such as the Wagner Group, with which they pervaded a series of states in Central and Northern Africa and also in Middle East, causing wars and coups, shows that dangers to national security can appear when it seems that they cannot take place.
Secondly, we should bear in mind the fact that the leaders of the pro-Russian parties are affiliated to the Russian imperial movement and can eventually act exactly as Victor Medvedchuk acted together with the patrons from Russia against Ukraine, justifying the Russian military aggression. This fact was confirmed by Putin’s chef. In this regard, we should not forget that Igor Dodon, one of the leaders of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM), publicly justified the annexation of Crimea to Russia, making this to secure Putin’s support in the parliamentary elections of 2014. We should also not forget that Igor Dodon signed an agreement of cooperation between the PSRM and the Just Russia Party led by Sergey Mironov, who is a great fan of Yevgeny Progozhin, of the persuasion methods and tools of this. Not at all accidentally, swindler Ilan Shor recently addressed a letter to Vladimir Putin by which he called on the latter to take measures within the UN against the genocide in the Republic of Moldova. That was actually an invitation to aggression, by the model of the aggression in Ukraine.
That’s why the strengthening of the armed forces, of the capacity to defend and ensure security and the combating of Russian propaganda remain topical tasks that are extremely important and should be carried out with responsibility.
Conclusions
The day of June 23, 2023, the day of the rebellion of Putin’s chef, will undoubtedly go down in history. On this day, the truth about the Putinism regime was made public by one of Putin’s protégée who dreamed of reaching with his army of criminals the La Manche Strait so as to celebrate the victory in World War III. Those who hurried to name Prigozhin’s March for justice a civil war were wrong. No, it wasn’t a civil war. It was probably a special civil military operation as dictator Putin likes to name the wars he starts, but doesn’t know how to end them.
It is important to remember that Putin has governed Russia for almost one quarter of a century, since September 1999, and in the period he amended the Constitution as many times as he needed to extend his rule; established a personal dictatorial regime; destroyed the opposition, leaving only imitators; physically destroyed his political opponents or jailed them for tens of years. The results of his rule and his military adventure ended with: the evasion of brains – hundreds of thousands of scientists left the country; destruction of the economy; isolation at international level and, in general, ruining of the country’s prestige. It seems that all these things were done for no one to be able to challenge his limitless influence and power. But this thing also failed. A chap called Prigozhin, a former common law criminal and a current war criminal, managed to prove in only 24 hours that Putin is a mediocre person isolated from the realities and cheated by his company, who could have been ousted by a banal March for justice if it had been brought to an end.
Anyway, we should admit that Putin’s dream to turn Russia into a pole of the multipolar world is close to being fulfilled. Indeed, the United States of America (U.S.) has been a global pole of conduct and control senses and systems; China in 40 years became a pole of the world industry and advanced technologies; the EU – a pole of the individual values and freedoms; while Russia a pole of unmeasured, unfounded ambitions generating chaos. The events of June 23-24, 2023 confirm without hesitation that the whole Putinist political and administrative construct is a failure that is extremely dangerous for the whole mankind. In this regard, U.S. journalist Thomas Friedman intuited well a month and a half ago, when he wrote his article entitled Vladimir Putin Is the World’s Most Dangerous Fool.