Pro-war voices increasingly criticize Putin’s war management

They still support Russia’s war against Ukraine, but increasingly criticize how it is being conducted, he said.

“These people are discovering Russia — Putin’s Russia, with its stupid police state that bombs everyone indiscriminately,” Zakharov said.

The latest such “discovery,” he said, was an administrative case on charges of discrediting the army against Z-activist and Moscow National Bolshevik leader Mikhail Axel.

“They once fought against Vladimir Putin, and since 2014 they have actively participated in the hybrid war. They had an NB brigade. They support the war in every possible way, but they do not support the way it is being conducted,” Zakharov said.

“He was not just fined for discrediting the army, but for criticizing Shoigu and using the word ‘cuckold’ in reference to Shoigu,” he added, referring to Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary and former defense minister.

According to Zakharov, such actions are an attempt to “crush this Z-space” so that it does not interfere with the Russian Defense Ministry’s efforts to paint a favorable picture for the dictator — for example, claiming that “Kupyansk is ours, we are moving at a tremendous pace.”

Zakharov said Z-activists are now furious for several reasons, including internet shutdowns and censorship.

“They cannot say a free word. They are now being censored like damn liberals. They are literally discovering Russia and speaking in the same words I have been writing all my life — crazy old men will not lead us to anything good. They literally use the same word: ‘old men,’” he said.

The rhetoric of pro-war bloggers has also changed regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Earlier, Zakharov said, their criticism followed the line of terrorist and former so-called “defense minister” of the “DPR” militant group Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, who called for harsher methods.

“Now, broadly speaking, there are two new trends. The first is that many of them are beginning to ask: what is the price of victory? I read a fresh post just yesterday. People are walking over the bodies of others, and grass is already growing out of those who died before them. This Chekhov Street in Kostiantynivka, which must be taken at the cost of tens of thousands — is that the price?” Zakharov said.

The second thing Z-patriots are now beginning to say is that general mobilization will not change the situation in favor of the Russian occupation army.

“This is a major indicator that the loyalist, pro-war audience is now anti-Putin, although this could have been expected. What will it actually lead to? I think they will be repressed the same way we once were — foreign agent labels, criminal cases. There are already Z-bloggers who have been labeled foreign agents,” the investigative journalist said.

At the same time, Zakharov recalled that in 2022 it was the so-called war correspondents and Z-bloggers who conveyed the real state of affairs to Putin, who had been living inside Defense Ministry briefings. Putin then announced partial mobilization on Sept. 21.

Therefore, there is a scenario in which people could again reach the Russian dictator, who lives in information isolation, through old acquaintances, Zakharov said.