Kremlin Bracing for Chaos and Possible Systemic Collapse when Veterans Return in Large Numbers from Fighting in Ukraine, ‘Faridaily’ Telegram Channel Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 20 – The Faridaily telegram channel says that the Kremlin is already prepping for the return of hundreds of thousands of veterans from Putin’s war in Ukraine, fearing that many will be suffering from PTSD, will bring with them chaos and even threaten the current regime with collapse.
    This report, based on the telegram channel’s sources in the upper reaches of the Putin regime and one of the most alarmist to date, can be found at t.me/faridaily24/1587. It has now been reproduced in English by the Meduza news agency at meduza.io/en/feature/2025/03/17/the-system-could-collapse.
    Among the problems that the Kremlin expects the veterans to bring home with them are widespread drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment, crime and debt, difficulties in reintegrating into the civilian economy,  and domestic abuse and a dramatic uptick in unplanned pregnancies followed by the collapse of many marriages.
    The telegram channel says that Moscow has taken a few steps to prepare, including the formation of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation under Putin’s niece, Anna Tsivilyeva. But it doesn’t have enough trained personnel to cope with such an explosion of problems and even has difficulties in publicly acknowledging that such problems exist.
    The Faridaily channel does not mention what may be the most important consequence of this Kremlin attention to the problems a mass return of veterans could pose for the country: pressure within the Putin leadership not to bring them home quickly but to continue to use them in Ukraine or elsewhere in furtherance of the Kremlin’s expansionist policies.  
    One thing is striking: some independent Russian experts appear less alarmed about the problems returning veterans will present than are their counterparts in the Kremlin, arguing that many of the veterans will have far fewer problems than those in power now fear (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/03/some-but-not-all-of-700000-russians.html).