by Marco Imarisio
Despite the Kremlin’s tight control, some talk shows are beginning to admit that “the situation is getting difficult”. And in some newspapers, Kadyrov’s sentences to Prigozhin openly criticizing the chief of staff Gerasimov are quoted
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MOSCOW – «Good morning Russia! A bit of music to face these difficult times with a smile ».
If Nostra Radio, the adult-only radio station that only offers old hits from the 1970s and 1980s, says so, then it’s true. Things aren’t going well. And there are some cracks in the wall erected by state media propaganda to separate reality from its triumphant representation.
The famous TV talk shows, the Kremlin’s most powerful megaphone, continue as if nothing had happened. With a few notable exceptions. Yesterday was Sunday, so everyone was there. The triumphant march of war correspondent Dmitry Kulko was heard on Channel One. “The front line will become a huge graveyard for Ukrainian soldiers.” On NTV, Anatoly Mayorov neutrally represented the version given by the Ministry of Defense a few days ago. “A withdrawal is underway, but only to avoid encirclement.”
The surprise came from Rossiya 1, where Dmitri Kiselyov, who, together with Vladimir Solovyev, who is now also famous in our country, is the most popular and zealous Russian conductor, admitted that in Donbass “the situation is becoming very difficult”.
His envoy to Ukraine ventured to add that Russian forces are building new “defense” lines to prevent the Ukrainian army “building on the gains made so far”.
The cracks are best seen by reading the newspapers.
It hardly needs remembering that the notion of the independent press has almost entirely disappeared since last February 24th. “Lyman’s capitulation is becoming a political problem,” writes the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, founded in 1999 by the then-disgraced oligarch Boris Berezovsky, on the front page.
And that is certainly a novelty. It is a problem “because it has triggered a new wave of criticism of the general staff and the army leadership, not only among experts but also among many politicians. It is not clear how the Kremlin will react and whether it will make changes ».
There are first and last names of the main critics, and this is also a novelty. Mentioned are the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the head of the Wagner brigade Evgeniy Prigozhin, who are very dissatisfied with the chief of staff Valery Gerasimov and the introduction of martial law in the border areas as well as the use of tactical nuclear weapons want weapons .
Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of the newspapers close to the Kremlin, also reports without comment on the statements made by the two “dissidents”. But in some places he concedes that “now the enemy will try to exploit his own successes”.
In today’s Russian newspapers:
* Lyman’s surrender becomes a political issue.
* The mobilization has rocked the boat of political stability.?
* The world?On the edge of a [nuclear] Catastrophe.? #ReadRussia https://t.co/5r2EnGKTrD pic.twitter.com/uuBf2lUDLm– Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) October 3, 2022
“gang of idiots.” Yesterday Solovyev, angrier than usual, left out his country’s bureaucracy, which, according to him, prevents the correct delivery of weapons and resources to the front.
His rival Kiselyov also blamed the clumsiness of the military hierarchies, “a holdover from the USSR”, thereby in some way weddling with the theses of Kadyrov and Prighozin.
On both the talk shows and the newspapers, this awareness of the difficulties is fueling a further stream of anti-Western and anti-NATO rhetoric, laced with the usual insults.
What is missing is any trace of criticism from the top, in short, the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin is quoted in the headlines with the sentences of his speech on the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions. “They are our citizens and they always will be.” “They don’t want a free and strong Russia. We, on the other hand, want it».
A scapegoat is urgently needed to deal with the collapse of reality. However, this awakening is also a beginning. Or a sign of the times.
The latest news about the war in Ukraine
October 3, 2022 (update October 3, 2022 | 12:43)
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