On the set of the Russian television channel NTV, Boris Nadezhdin, a former member of the Duma, made vitriolic statements about the war in Ukraine. An anomaly in the Russian media landscape where communication is strongly framed. For some time, it seems that the control of President Vladimir Putin is fading and that voices are beginning to rise to criticize the Russian invasion.
Even if he does not immediately target the head of the Kremlin, Boris Nadezhdin nevertheless criticized the “lies” of his advisers: “They convinced President Putin that this special operation would be quick and effective, that the civilian population would be out of danger and that we were going to invade with the National Guard and the ‘Kadyrovtsy’ to bring order. These people lied to us,” he said. “Someone told Putin that the Ukrainians were going to surrender, that they were going to flee, that they were going to want to join Russia. Someone must have told him all that. They also said it on television” , added the former politician.
According to him, it will be “absolutely impossible” to defeat Ukraine if Russia does not change its methods of “colonial warfare”: “There is a strong army against the Russian troops, supported economically and technologically by the most powerful countries “, he explains. “Either we opt for mobilization and an open war, or we leave Ukraine but the balance of power is not in our favour,” he argues. Thus, Nadezhdin suggests opening peace talks to end the clashes.
A heresy for Sergei Mironov, parliamentary deputy also present on the set, who defends that no negotiation can take place as long as the Nazi regime of President Zelensky has not been destroyed. Alexander Kazarov, another member of the Duma, also urges Nadezhdin to moderate his language.
For his part, geopolitics expert Viktor Olevich agreed: “They say that everything is going according to plan. Does anyone really believe that six months ago we planned to leave Balaklia and to repel a counter-offensive near Kharkiv? Our intelligence services should have foreseen that.” He concludes by asserting that Russia is making a mistake in denying Ukrainian identity.