Putin's Elite Shake as Hardliners Demand "Stalinist" Measures

 Reuters) — Insiders are alarmed by the emergence of prominent hardliners in the Kremlin and worry that the Russian president may heed their calls for escalating hostilities abroad and imposing harsh repression at home.

Senior business executives and government officials have watched with growing concern as individuals they once regarded as marginal, such as Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known for his Wagner mercenary company and recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, have emerged as the public forces driving Vladimir Putin's push to intensify his expanding war effort.

Some wealthy Russians claimed that they were concerned for their own safety as well as the safety of their families as a result of Prigozhin's public calls for "urgent Stalinist repressions" against corporate tycoons who aren't enthusiastic enough to support the war effort. Worry within the bureaucracy about the Kremlin's unwillingness or incapacity to defend its own has increased in response to Prigozhin's open attacks on senior military officers, some of whom have since been removed.

The invasion of Ukraine is increasingly being referred to by Kremlin officials as a "people's war," echoing Josef Stalin's World War II language. Some insiders even express concern that the purges and arbitrary arrests that marked the Soviet dictator's tenure may soon follow. Officials secretly enquired as to the safety of family members during the call-up of 300,000 reservists because they were hesitant to publicly acknowledge that they had sent their military-age children abroad.

Despite the absence of the military coup that typically accompanies a military dictatorship, one senior official compared the current state of affairs to one. According to insiders, fear is currently the prevalent emotion. All persons who were contacted for this piece agreed to an anonymous interview due to the possibility of retaliation.

The growing concern over the situation so far hasn't materialized into any sort of internal opposition to Putin's ongoing escalation.

based on insiders. Many in the leadership are in favor of what they regard as a struggle for Russia's own existence, and they believe there is no other course of action than to keep applying pressure until Ukraine and its friends in the US and Europe give in. Some government figures who were earlier considered to be rather liberal, like Sergei Kiriyenko, the deputy chief of staff at the Kremlin, have turned out to be ardent war supporters in public.

Putin has claimed that, at least temporarily, the mobilization is over, but many in the business and bureaucratic elite are concerned that the militarization of the economy and society is just accelerating. Similar to Stalin's war cabinet, Putin's special commission of senior government and security officials was established to coordinate economic strategy to support the military and the defense sector.

Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist who departed Russia in the first few weeks of the war, claimed that the state no longer has the monopoly on legalized violence and that new users of this old monopoly have emerged. Putin's encouragement of this is weird.

After over nine months of fighting, many in the business and economic elite are now more convinced than ever that Putin's invasion was a disastrous error that will sentence the nation to isolation and weakness. According to those close to the leadership, even within the administration there are many who secretly oppose the battle but are too afraid to say up. Tycoons have avoided politics in an effort to maintain excellent relations with the Kremlin and the operation of their enterprises. Few people have publicly denounced the war from outside the country.

Given the weak performance of Russia's regular military thus far and the lukewarm support for the war within his own government, one senior official claims that Putin has no choice but to rely on aggressive players like Prigozhin and Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman head of Russia's Chechnya region who has sent thousands of troops to fight. Both men are supported by heavily armed armies.

According to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Andrei Kolesnikov, Prigozhin is acting like a parallel administration. He might be able to challenge Putin for power, if not after him.

Known as "Putin's chef," Prigozhin, 61, has been sanctioned by the US and its allies for a variety of alleged transgressions, including interfering in US elections and sending mercenaries to Africa and the Middle East. He previously worked in the restaurant industry in the president's hometown of St. Petersburg and held catering contracts with the Kremlin. In 2021, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation added him to its wanted list for meddling in elections.

After years of denying his affiliation with the Wagner private military contracting company, Prigozhin openly acknowledged in late September that he had formed the organization in 2014. He inaugurated the Wagner Center, a glass and steel skyscraper in St. Petersburg, on November 4. He jokingly acknowledged his involvement in interfering with the US election this week and vowed to keep doing so.

He has appeared in movies that were stolen from jails all throughout Russia, where he offered inmates the option to be released early if they enlist to fight in Ukraine and serve for six months at the front. He also forewarns them that if they desert or try to surrender, they will be summarily shot. The guy in the films "looked frightfully like" Prigozhin, according to his press office, which declined to clarify whether or not he was in them.

Wagner intends to establish "militia" training facilities in border districts close to the conflict zone, according to Prigozhin's announcement over the weekend. He said in a statement made on Telegram that fighters would come from "local firms," who would send a quarter of their male employees to "the trenches," and that he would pay for the preparations.

Prigozhin filed a rare case with the prosecutor's office earlier this month against the governor of St. Petersburg, a close supporter of Putin and a longtime foe of the businessman. Insiders are astonished by the Kremlin's apparent quiet on the situation.

Although Prigozhin has been spotted donning the Hero of Russia award, the nation's highest accolade, it is unknown how regularly he and Putin interact. While some Kremlin insiders claim that Prigozhin now meets with the president more frequently than previously, others claim that he is not a part of the limited circle of hardliners that Putin favors. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated: "Prigozhin is the subject of several rumors. We have no plans to address them in any way.

According to Prigozhin, he has not spoken to Putin. He is seen as an associate of Sergei Surovikin, the new commander Putin appointed to lead the operation in Ukraine in October and who was renowned for his severe methods in Syria, where they fought with Wagner soldiers.Contrary to optimistic military reports, US intelligence has informed President Joe Biden that Prigozhin spoke with Putin directly regarding the war, according to the Washington Post.

When Ukraine's soldiers were actively retaking area in September, Prigozhin and the head of Chechnya, Kadyrov, both occasionally questioned the military leadership's abilities.

Why It Is Difficult to Ignore Russia's Nuclear Threats: QuickTakeThe Russian president is becoming more and more isolated, according to insiders.

encircled by a few hardliners, immune to opposing viewpoints. The Kremlin has given up trying to shield the nation from the reality of the fight for months as Russian soldiers struggle to contain a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Since Ukrainian forces started to push back his soldiers in significant areas in the late summer, Putin has gradually intensified the battle. His call-up of reserve troops, widespread expansion of missile strikes against civilian targets including power facilities in Ukraine, and possible use of nuclear weapons haven't been able to reverse the trend so far. The progress of Ukraine is continuing, and Russia is losing the land it declared it had annexed in September.

He imposed various forms of martial law last month across sizable portions of Russia.Meanwhile, fiscal and economic plans are being revised by government technocrats to account for the war's gradually growing resource shift. In order to prevent the same blunders and organizational problems that marred the first round, they have also been tasked with computerizing the mobilization process. Many officials anticipate the announcement of another round to occur early in 2019.

According to Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the political consulting firm R Politik, "the attitude of despair that everything has turned out this way is really powerful."

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