Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 21 – The first line of
defense of any state against domestic protests consists of the police; the
second of the army. The Putin regime has been building up the former in various
ways (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/05/putin-talks-about-peace-with-society.html).
Now, there is a report the Kremlin is ensuring that it will be able to use the
latter.
The Tyumen office of the opposition
Navalny organization has released a video in which an anonymous spetsnaz
soldier says that he and others in his unit were recently asked by “people from
Moscow” whether they were prepared to
shoot at Russian protesters (shtab.navalny.com/hq/tyumen/2029/ as summarized at rusmonitor.com/vlasti-rf-gotovyatsya-strelyat-v-narod-svidetelstvo-specnazovca.html).
According to Rusmonitor’s reading, the
soldier said that “in early 2019, ‘people from Moscow’ came to his unit to
carry out a survey which included questions about the political views of the military
personnel.” What disturbed him and his fellow soldiers were questions as to whether
they were ready to use their weapons against their fellow citizens.
“The informer reported that he
personally and also all whom he then asked categorically declared that they
were not prepared to fulfill such an order. He even stressed that such a
question by itself shocked him and his fellow soldiers” because they had never
been confronted with such a question before.
The spetsnaz soldier, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said that in his view, “the powers that be understand”
where things are heading “and therefore what to know whether the army will be
on their side when something begins.”
On the one hand, it is far from clear
whether this kind of question is being asked more widely than just the special
forces which in fact have been deployed by the regime against domestic
opponents in the past. But on the other, to ask such a question is to answer it
in a way: apparently at least some in Moscow are worried about the loyalty of
the military.
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