More attacks: Putin increases penalties for sabotage

With the tightening of the law, not only acts of sabotage themselves, but also the financing, solicitation and preparation of coups and other “subversive acts” can be punished. This was Putin’s reaction to attacks on infrastructure in Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. The attacks intensified especially following the mobilization announced by Putin. By November alone, attacks on more than 75 public buildings were registered, including more than 50 on military commissariats.

Civil rights activists criticize that with the change in the law there is a lot of scope for the prosecution of opposition and dissidents due to vague formulations. In recent months, many war critics have been sentenced to long prison terms under the pretext of “discrediting the Russian army”.

Reports on gathering of Russian troops in Luhansk

There is no hibernation in the war with Ukraine. On Thursday, Russian rocket fire reached far into western Ukraine, near the borders with Romania and Slovakia. Infrastructure targets were met once more. According to the mayor of the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, 90 percent of households were without electricity following explosions. Explosions were also reported from the Poltava, Odessa, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions. On Wednesday, Cherson was also the target of the attacks.

Archyde.com/State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Single-family houses on the outskirts of Kyiv were also hit by the Russian shelling

In Moscow, meanwhile, Putin inaugurated several new warships, including a submarine capable of firing nuclear missiles, in a ceremony via video message on Thursday. Putin announced the production of more ships and praised the capabilities of the Russian Navy. Nevertheless, the Russian army is still considered insufficiently equipped and poorly organized.

On Thursday, Kyiv reported that its troops were advancing near the strategically most important city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region. At the same time, the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that the Russian army was gathering troops in the Luhansk region and preparing for a decisive battle. The Ukrainian military governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajdaj, also reported on his Telegram channel regarding a concentration of Russian troops and heavy fighting in front of Kreminna.

Contradictions at Elite

Defeats at the front also exacerbated the split in the Russian elite, which the US media reported on a few months ago but which the Kremlin rejected. Just a few days ago, a US official told the AFP news agency that there were different views among the Russian leadership regarding a winter offensive: “I think we see contradictory things.” Some wanted to lead further offensives once morest Ukraine, others had ” real questions regarding Russia’s ability to actually do that.”

debate

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The political scientist Tatyana Stanowaja argued similarly for a contribution to the think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The elite is still in the Putin camp and part of the system. But it is divided into realists, who call for a tactical pause to reconsider goals and a reorganization of the army, and those who advocate escalation at any price.

Withdrawal from Kharkiv and Kherson as a turning point

These representatives would also benefit from a bad situation at the front, as their political influence would then increase, the expert said. Accordingly, this group includes, for example, Yevgeny Prigozhin with his Wagner mercenary group and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The Russian withdrawal from Kharkiv and Cherson a few months ago was decisive for this development within the elite.

AP

Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, is seen as supporting the escalation of the Russian attacks

Putin’s function as leader is being “more and more eroded because he’s still waging this war as a ‘special operation’ without making his goals clear,” Stanovaya analyzes. In the opinion of the political scientist, the proponents of the escalation in particular are currently influencing the Russian strategy in Ukraine: “They are the reason why Putin has switched from the tactic of waiting and to violent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.”