Talented generals must make way for yes-men: now Putin is destroying his own army out of fear

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Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin (70) is afraid. From someone within his own ranks who is more powerful than him. That his followers are not loyal enough. Of betrayal. That’s why he takes out every critic before it’s too late.

At least twelve senior military commanders have been removed from their posts since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A large number of them had to leave because they complained about the Russian military leadership or the situation at the front, reports the American newspaper ‘The Washington Post’.

High-ranking officials are removed from the army

The best-known example: Wagner boss Yevgeni Prigozhin (†62). After launching an uprising against the Kremlin leadership in Moscow on June 23, he fell out of favor with Putin. On August 23, he had to pay for his disobedience with his life: his private jet crashed near Moscow, it is still unclear who was responsible. But it is clear that the Kremlin had a hand in it.

A day before the air disaster that killed Prigozhin, General Sergei Surovikin (56) was removed as head of the Russian air force. He was an ally of Prigozhin, who had made a name for himself as ‘General Armageddon’. He was popular in the army and always made the right decisions at the front in Ukraine. He has withdrawn overwhelmed Russian forces from an untenable position in Kherson and strengthened the formidable defenses that have so far held back the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

In July, a few weeks after the Wagner mutiny, Major General Ivan Popov, 48, who led one of Russia’s elite forces in Ukraine, was abruptly dismissed after criticizing the leadership of the Defense Ministry. In an audio message obtained by The Washington Post, he accused his superiors of “treacherously and shamefully beheading the military at its most difficult and tense moment.”

Another commander, former deputy defense minister Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, 61, who was dismissed in April, has not been seen since the mutiny. They all follow in the footsteps of other disgraced generals such as Colonel General Andrei Serdyukov (61), Colonel General Alexander Tchaiko (52) and Lieutenant General Sergei Kisel (52). According to media reports, they were all transferred as punishment for an early failure in the war.

Better loyalty than talent

What remains is the evil – but loyal – remainder, including Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (68). Leonid Volkov, 42, the longtime political adviser to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, said Putin had no choice but to keep Shoigu in office. A more talented secretary of defense would be a threat to the president, especially if he were able to turn the war in Russia’s favor.

A triumphant, prominent military chief would pose a similar threat and possibly incite war advocates who have rallied around the Z symbol on Russian tanks, Volkov said. “Shoigu is irreplaceable, and he is irreplaceable because he is very bad,” Volkov wrote on the social media site X, formerly Twitter.

This makes it clear: Putin relies on loyalty rather than competence. Pavel Luzin, an expert on the Russian military and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in the US, sees it this way: “Every Russian general of the past twenty years is first and foremost a loyal bureaucrat who plays by the rules of holds power. But you should not confuse that with competence,” Luzin told the newspaper. The result: “The army is organizationally, intellectually and technically degenerated,” he explains to the newspaper.

According to analysts, it is uncertain whether the structure of the Russian military complex is so dilapidated that it will collapse. (chs)

Source: Blick