Russia Witnessing ‘Start of Disintegration of Its Army, Something that Always Precedes Collapse of the State,’ Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 7 – Just as in the months before the Bolshevik Revolution, as noted at that time by Russian General Anton Denikin, Vladimir Pastukhov says, the world is “witnessing the beginning of the disintegration of the Russian army, a step that always precedes the collapse of the state.

            “The Russian army is slowly but surely disintegrating,” the London-based Russian analyst says, with the formation of illegal armies like those of Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov and Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, as well as other smaller forces that are paid for by the state but treat the command with contempt (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6480845C25F6B).

            These “private” military groups in number and in terms of ordinary weaponry are comparable to the force Moscow assembled in early 2022 to invade Ukraine and take Kyiv, Pastukhov points out; and they are entirely financed by the state even though their commanders, while taking money from the state, are insubordinate in the extreme.

            As a result, the Russian military, “unprepared for a major war,” has found itself “in the same position in was on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution when soldiers’ committees tore off the epaulets of officers and decided when to advance and when to retreat.” The only difference now is that “in place of the soldiers’ committees are gangster groupings.”

            “Such an army,” Pastukhov points out, “even if equipped with hypersonic missiles and nuclear weapons cannot be viable in the long run.”