WASHINGTON/MOSKAU (dpa-AFX) – After the dismissal of several Russian generals, US experts see a broad fight against disobedience in the Moscow military apparatus and for information sovereignty in the war against Ukraine. The firing of Major General Vladimir Zelivyorstov and before that his colleague Ivan Popov, reported Saturday by unofficial Russian sources, suggested that the “disintegration of the Russian chain of command in Ukraine is accelerating,” according to an analysis by the US Institute for War Studies ISW in Washington on Saturday (local time).
As in other cases, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow has not officially commented on the dismissal of 49-year-old Zelivyorstov as commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division. However, the ISW experts assume that the Major General, who was only promoted in June, had previously also criticized the conduct of the war, like Popov. Popov had announced his dismissal himself.
The US experts are currently seeing the military apparatus being purged of disloyal forces. Accordingly, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his chief of staff Valery Gerasimov are in the process of getting rid of these officers. “Growing disobedience is likely to deepen existing divisions in the Russian military and in the broader security sphere,” the analysis said.
The background is the uprising of the Russian private army Wagner against the military apparatus, which quickly ended on June 24th. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of incompetence. Prigozhin also has supporters in the regular troops.
The ISW experts also see a tendency in the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense to get the information and revelations distributed primarily via the Telegram news service under control. Former Russian secret service officers had repeatedly spread insider knowledge there, which was taken as criticism of the Moscow apparatus.
According to the ISW analysis, a battle for sovereignty and influence is raging at Telegram between the various interest groups against the background of Russia’s failures in the war in Ukraine. As an example, they cited the arrest of former secret service agent Mikhail Polyakov, who is said to have controlled several popular Telegram channels. According to experts, the arrest of the Deputy Minister for digitalization, Maxim Parshin, related to it. This is accused of corruption./mau/DP/he