Putin’s Control over Russia Might Not Be As Secure As He Thinks

Alexander Motyl

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A few days ago, another mercenary leader called for Russian President Putin’s overthrow. Now, a leading political player of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) has issued a dire warning to Russia’s self-elected president.

Aleksandr Vaskovsky, 52, is no small fry. Since April 2017, he’s served as acting chairman of the DNR Supreme Council and co-chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Miners. A DNR patriot and proud son of Mother Russian, he knows of which he speaks. And if he speaks critically, he must mean it.

Here’s what he had to say about life in the DNR in an interview with the pro-Putin Russian blogger, Pavel Ivanov:

“Here’s what we hear in private conversations. The people have had enough. When there accumulates a critical mass of people and participants of the Special Military Operation [the war against Ukraine] with combat experience, all their anger and fury will be enhanced by our organizational abilities and technologies. Then, I fear, neither the prosecutor’s agencies nor the special services will be able to control things…. Don’t push people to their limit, because we will not be able to control them.”