Analysts say a purge of the Russian regime’s own supporters is under way as rival factions turn on each other

Sergei Markov and Roman Alyokhin, respectively the political analyst and pro-war blogger, were both designated as “foreign agents” this year, a label previously used against anti-Putin voices. Carrying a negative Soviet-era connotation, it obliges people to identify themselves as foreign agents on social media and in other publications, as well as exposing them to crippling financial limitations.

Taken together, analysts say, the cases point to a new trend: a purge not only of dissenters but also of the regime’s own supporters, as rival factions within the system turn on each other.

“First, they went after the anti-war voices. Now there are none left, and the repressive machine cannot be stopped,” said the Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.

  • einkorn@feddit.orgEnglish
    27·
    2 days ago

    Well, that’s the issue with authoritarian regimes: A common enemy is needed to keep people in line. Once the excitement stops or the enemy doesn’t exist anymore, the infighting starts.

    It’s going to be the same in the US: Some pro Trump folks will look very stupid once the machinery turns on them for whatever reason.

  • Skiluros@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    “First, they went after the anti-war voices. Now there are none left, and the repressive machine cannot be stopped,” said the Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.

    …

    Schulmann describes the divide as a struggle between two rival camps – the veteran propagandists tightly bound to the defence ministry and the Kremlin, known as the “loyalists”, and the sprawling grassroots movement of ultranationalist war supporters known as the “militarists” or Z-bloggers, after the letter that has become a symbol of the invasion.

    I wouldn’t trust Schulmann, like most russian “liberals” they always have excuses for the behaviour of their society:

    I continue to think that they started the war by mistake, based on incorrect information. This happens with autocracies: an information bubble forms, they live in it, they encourage loyalty over competence, good news is brought to the boss and he thinks that now is the right time to do Crimea 2.0, only even bigger and better, with a mighty strike on foreign territory [Donbas and Crimea is not foreign territory?] .

    This was from 2024, 10 years after the russian annexation of Crimea, the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Schulmann, being the russian that she is, doesn’t even consider the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas as war.

    And who the fuck is “they”? 85% of russians (with adjustments for preference falsification!) supported the annexation of Crimea and 65% of russians (at minimum, as per researchers, the real number is higher, even with preference falsification adjustments) supported the full scale invasion of Ukraine.

    1.5 million Ukrainians having to leave the russian occupied parts of Donbas (including my family) and Crimea is no big deal for the russian “liberal” Ekaterina Schulmann.

    This is what many Westerners don’t understand; if this is the attitude of an allegedly opposition minded russian, can you imagine what goes through the head of the median russian?