Russian setbacks in Ukraine have resulted in increasing internal criticism toward the conduct of the war, with many directing their discontent at a key Putin ally — Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
In recent months, usually muted criticism towards the Russian Ministry of Defense started to take place across Russian state and social media before escalating into criticism of Shoigu, 67, specifically. The loudest and fiercest criticism has come from independent nationalist figures who take issue not with the war itself but rather the conduct of it, which they feel is too reserved. The fact that sentiment from the “blogosphere” has made it onto state television, where much of the narrative is approved by the Kremlin, is leading many to speculate that Shoigu’s days as minister of defense are numbered.
Public sentiment still holds Russia’s armed forces as sacrosanct, and those who criticize the merits of the army itself face possible imprisonment. Those in the blogosphere and state television usually refer to Russian soldiers as “our boys” and “our guys.” But faced with increasing territorial losses and undeniable examples of the mismanagement of the partial mobilization, the wrath of media figures is being turned on Shoigu.
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“Many are saying that the Defense Minister, who allowed things to come to this, should simply shoot himself like a [real] officer,” Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian administration in Kherson, said this week.
This sentiment was echoed by state TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, who runs a pro-Kremlin talk show that heavily supports the war.
“The guilty [generals] should be punished, we don’t have capital punishment unfortunately, but for some of them it would be the only solution,” Solovyov said about the generals responsible for recent losses, according to AFP. “They don’t even have an officer’s sense of honor because they are not shooting themselves,”
Perhaps Shoigu’s most prominent and fervent critic in Russia is Igor “Strelkov” Girkin. The ultranationalist and former Russian military intelligence officer was a main player in the war in the Donbas region, which he started by leading a group of Russian-Ukrainian militants to capture the Donetsk city of Sloviansk on April 12, 2014. While criticizing the entire conduct of the war almost since the very beginning, Girkin has particularly focused his ire on Shoigu.
Last month, in a Telegram post, Girkin relayed a story where someone claimed that Shoigu was imbued with the soul of Subutai, a famous Mongol general under Genghis Khan who was undefeated across dozens of battles across Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia, writing, “And is this Subutai’s Avatar for sure? Otherwise, maybe the Tuva lamas got a little confused and instead of the great Mongol commander, the soul of some stupid and greedy Chinese general lives in the body of our minister, who lost all of his battles and — during the flight from battlefield — was trampled by a horse?”
Girkin claimed on Wednesday that Solovyov’s criticism of Shoigu on state television meant that the minister, whom he insultingly refers to as “General Plywood,” due to the minister’s fascination with wood, will be dismissed in the near future.
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“It was the RF Ministry of Defense and its head that made an invaluable and huge contribution to the fact that we are now on the verge of a military-political catastrophe,” he added.
