“Perhaps the West should make it clear that it can live with a decent officers’ junta in Moscow. Everything should be declared possible on the condition that Putin is either killed on his own or delivered to an international war crimes tribunal. Without this, the war must grind on to its bitter end, which could be a repeat of Berlin 1945.”
“I could keep my mouth shut and be a coward, or I could tell the truth… In your name, remembering our fallen comrades, it was impossible for me to lie”
Ivan Popov, a Russian general, was fired for insubordination.
Vienna
One of our fine, old ambassadors – a retired Eastern expert – writes to me: “The tone in the Kremlin is getting wilder and wilder. I am increasingly afraid that the ship is drifting and possibly without a helmsman.” His warning resonates. Russia under Vladimir Putin is a nuclear-armed banana state, rotting at both ends.
The Russian leader is busy jumping from tree to tree in a jungle of conspiracies and ineptitude. His propaganda machine manufactures lies and statements so depraved that no one can take them seriously. The war in Ukraine, which was supposed to end quickly and painlessly with a triumphal march through Kyiv, is running into its second hopeless year, with Russia being weaker and more isolated than ever this century. A privately-owned army just rebelled but was forgiven and its battle-hardened soldiers were retained because they are needed at the front. Between five and ten active generals have disappeared. Sergey Surovikin, officially the Kremlin´s deputy commander in Ukraine, is believed to be incarcerated in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
The rebellion of the Wagner militia suddenly looks less strange than before. That the militia leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, could easily occupy Rostov-on-Don and the next day drive almost 800 km up the road towards Moscow suggests that parts of the regular army supported him, but gave up halfway. This is undoubtedly what the security service (FSB) is discussing — as it is so delicately called – with General Surovikin. Is the FSB also talking with Prigozhin? The latest photo of the Wagner boss shows him in his underpants, sitting on a bed in not exactly luxurious surroundings.
As if all this were not enough, one of the army’s best-known generals, Ivan Popov, was purged last week, having reported that his army, the 58th in Southern Ukraine, had suffered unjustifiable losses of men and materiel, because higher-placed commanders in the rear did not support him with long-range artillery. The general, one of the most highly decorated and respected officers of the armed forces, paid a moving and for Putin dangerous farewell to his soldiers, thanking them for their efforts in the battlefield, then added: “I could keep my mouth shut and be a coward, or I could tell the truth… In your name, remembering our fallen comrades, it was impossible for me to lie. I drew attention to the existing difficulties and was dismissed.”
Who failed? Putin as Commander-in-Chief? Defense Minister Shoigu? Chief of The General Staff Gerasimov? The active soldiers and officers are listening, the Kremlin scene is changing. A new play is coming to town, called The Generals against The Gangsters. The plot as such is old stuff. Towards the end of the First World War, the nearly defeated armies of Germany told the Kaiser to leave. He left for exile in Holland, and the war was over. German Field Marshal Rommel saw the upcoming disaster in 1944 and tried to act, but was caught in the process and told by the Nazis to commit suicide. In 1974 the Portuguese armed forces toppled the Caetano-dictatorship, realizing that the nation was bleeding to its death in Africa. As Jyllands-Posten’s reporter, I observed a similar drama in Bucharest during Christmas 1989, when the Romanian army, discreetly encouraged by Washington, killed President Nicolae and his wife Elena.
Can something similar be imagined in Moscow? Why not? There must be people around, military men, oligarchs, high-ranking state officials, and others, who would like to hear, what the West has to offer them, safety and future positions included, in case they dispose of Putin. Could an opportunity present itself, when and if the gangster-in-chief travels to next month´s BRICS summit in South Africa?
Perhaps the West should make it clear, even through a speech by President Biden or Nato Secretary General Stoltenberg, that it can live with a decent officers’ junta in Moscow if such a creature is waiting backstage. Russia can then withdraw from the entire territory of Ukraine (just as Portugal after the Carnation Revolution of 1974 withdrew from Africa and saved herself) and begin reparation payments. Everything should be declared possible on the condition that Putin is either killed on his own or delivered to an international war crimes tribunal. Without this, the war must grind on to its probably bitter end, maybe a repeat of Berlin 1945, the most glaring example in recent times of an army being deceived by its political leadership and then deceiving its nation.
Author: Per Nyholm
Danish journalist since 1960, based in Austria, columnist and foreign correspondent at the liberal Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. This text was translated and adapted for The Ukrainian Review by Stanislav Kinka.
