Kremlin spokeswoman reports on battle between Russian elites Kremlin spokeswoman reports on battle between Russian elites

Information about power struggles in Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s inner circle continues to leak to the public. Among others, the head of the mercenary group “Wagner”, Yevgeny Prigoshin, caused a sensation with his criticism of the course of the war. That doesn’t make Russia’s leadership look good. In particular, Russian ultra-patriots accuse the Kremlin of failing in the “propaganda struggle” against Ukraine.

But what is the truth behind the reports that Putin is losing power? Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has now apparently admitted that the Kremlin has given up “central control” of Russia’s information space and that Putin cannot easily change that either. This is what experts from the American Institute for War Studies (ISW) report in their most recent situation report on the Russian offensive war against Ukraine.

During a panel discussion, Zakharova explained that the Kremlin was unable to replicate the Stalinist approach – setting up a modern equivalent of the Soviet Information Bureau – due to disputes among the Kremlin’s “elites”.

Zakharova said this during an altercation with entrepreneur Igor Ashmanov, who is close to the Kremlin, and who had openly criticized the “ambivalent information policy” of the Russian leadership. According to Ashmanov, the army command speaks of a “war”, although officially it is not allowed to talk about it. He reiterated that Stalin’s information policy during World War II should be taken as an example. At that time, the information had not yet reached the Germans.

According to ISW, opinion leaders, journalists and supporters of the so-called Novorossiya movement debated the “practical and technological aspects of information and cognitive warfare in the current situation” at the meeting. Novorossiya, in German: New Russia, refers to the Ukrainian areas that must be docked with Russia.

It is unclear why Zakharova, a veteran spokeswoman who has publicly admitted problems, writes the experts in the report. Perhaps she wanted to temper the expectations of Russian nationalist military bloggers about the Kremlin’s current ability to agree on a unified strategy.

(t-online/cpf)