Does Putin recognize the civil war in Russia and how can he influence the situation

20.03.2024, 14:47 apostrophe.ua

The Kremlin could no longer pretend that nothing was happening in Russia - Putin admitted for the first time that it was Russian volunteers, whom he had previously called foreign mercenaries, who were fighting on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Political strategist Mikhail Sheitelman told about this on the air of Apostrophe TV.

"He had nowhere to hide, because the situation has gone beyond specific settlements. People are panicking in Kursk and Belgorod Regions, and the truth cannot be hidden," he explained.

And while the Kremlin kept silent during the first two Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) raids, now there is no way to pretend that nothing is happening. Thousands of soldiers from the Rosgvardia, police, and FSB are now forced to fight on the territory of the Russian Federation itself, and evacuations have been announced in the regions bordering Ukraine.

"Everything is very serious. That's why Putin, as he did last year in his address to the Russian Parliament, said that it was necessary to create a kind of "sanitary zone" on the territory of Ukraine. And this was his response to the actions of Russian volunteers to somehow reassure public opinion that we are doing everything to prevent such raids in the future," the political strategist commented on the situation.

At the same time, the implementation of such a "project" is unlikely, because in order to create a so-called "sanitary zone" it is necessary to seize several regions of Ukraine at once.

According to Sheitelman, as shown by the raids of Russian volunteers, and before that, the summer "Prygozhin rebellion", if several thousand well-armed fighters enter the territory of the Russian Federation, they will not meet any resistance.

"The entire Russian Government and the top of the security forces will scatter, and the locals will not know what to do. After all, the entire Russian army is now on the territory of Ukraine. Now anyone can attack Russia-NATO or China, and occupy large territories in a relatively short period of time. Everyone sees the real combat potential of the Kremlin, which is not even able to fully cover its own territory," the political strategist summarized.

Earlier we wrote about the details of the raid by Russian volunteers on the day of Putin's "elections".