The Fall of Putin’s Regime Has Begun
The assassination of a leading Russian propagandist may signal the start of a Russian revolution
Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by phot705.
It’s the kind of news we’ve all been waiting for. Nearly six months after Putin’s Army invaded Ukraine, a group of Russians has taken responsibility for the death of Russian propagandist Daria Dugin (aka Darya Dugina, Darya Platinova).
Ms. Dugin is the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Putin crony whom many consider the source of Putin’s political extremism. On the day of the murder, Medium writer Nadin Brzezinski posted the following:
First, it’s essential to understand this is not just the daughter of a political scientist and philosopher. She, like her father, was part of the Russian nationalist far right. They both built the backbone of the nationalist Eurasian philosophy that Vladimir Putin is following.
He came up with a view of politics where democracy and freedom are not universal values but instead imposed by the west. He believes Russia needs strong men and that the future world is not just multipolar but undemocratic.
His work has deeply influenced the western far right. People like Steve Bannon are not just students of Dugin. They believe Democracy is anathema to the future.
Who was the real target — and who planted the bomb?
It is still unclear whether the assassination target was Daria or her father. Some say both. Despite having had no time to conduct a thorough investigation, Russia immediately blamed Ukraine for the car bomb that engulfed the 29-year-old in flames as her father stood by, watching.
Ukraine was quick to deny responsibility for the gruesome death. And yesterday, just one day after the assassination, the Russian Republican Army (RRA) claimed responsibility for her death. The group published a manifesto proclaiming their anti-Putin, pro-democratic ideology, reproduced on Medium in another article by Nadin Brzezinski.
According to Brzezinski, their manifesto was visible to the Russian public for approximately two minutes before it was deleted, but a screenshot included in Ms. Brzezinski’s article has been preserved and translated for us. As she points out, it reads much like a “Declaration of Independence.”
Here is an excerpt from the full manifesto:
We declare President Putin a usurper of power and a war criminal who amended the Constitution, unleashed a fratricidal war between the Slavic peoples, and sent Russian soldiers to certain and senseless death.
Poverty and coffins for some, palaces for others — the essence of his policy.
We believe that disenfranchised people have the right to rebel against tyrants.
Putin will be deposed and destroyed by us!
The document ends with a promise to free all those illegally convicted and imprisoned by Putin and to replace the current regime with a government “without oligarchs, without corruption, without arbitrary officials, without humiliating poverty.”
Could this be the beginning of the end for the Putin regime?
As always, naysayers abound. Many will say this means nothing. Some are even suggesting the assassination was the work of an arm of the FSB, the Russian Secret Service organization that replaced the KGB. If so, it would have to be a rogue arm working against Putin and his regime.
Whoever was responsible got close enough to Putin’s top propagandists to commit this deed. If a rogue arm of the FSB has joined the RRA, they could do significant damage to Putin and his allies. And based on their claims, that appears to be the plan.
(It’s also worth noting that the RRA warned that “something would happen” in the week before the explosion — a hard thing to predict if they were not involved.)
But the Kremlin continues to deny the claims of the RRA and has insisted the crime has already been solved by none other than the FSB.
Russians scramble to control the narrative
The Russians have a problem. If they admit to the existence of the RRA, they admit to internal political problems. Hence, their insistence that Ukrainian special services orchestrated this crime. As always, their primary concern is controlling the narrative.
Below is an excerpt from an interview with Ilya Ponomarev, a Russian opposition activist. The interview took place on August 21st and was published in The New Voice of Ukraine:
The FSB reported they had already solved this murder: they suspect Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vovk, born in 1979, and her daughter Sofia Shaban, born in 2010. She is 12 now. A 12-year-old child apparently killed Daria Dugina. They claim this crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services.
But the facts do not appear to support the story the Russians would like to tell.
Growing resistance within Russia
Ponomarev says he believes the RRA has at least a thousand members. “It’s a real network — no hierarchy, no bosses, no centralization. It is underground — the issue of security is very important there.”
Ponomarev also confirmed the existence of another anti-Russian organization known as the Anarcho-Communists. “These are real people, just another network.”
Some have suggested the manifesto and its “call to arms,” which promises protection for all who join, may be a ploy by the FSB to root out potential insurgents. However, this seems unlikely given the quick removal of the manifesto from Russian public media. When asked about it, Ponomarev said he believes this is just another conspiracy theory.
Ponomarev believes the resistance within Russia will continue to grow as more young people realize that peaceful protests do not work. “…there’s no longer a path for non-violent protest, only armed protest can achieve any results.”
Ponomarev also confirmed rumors that numerous high-level officials in Russia have been consulting with the West. But he maintains that the process of seeking asylum from Russia will not be what ends the regime.
They want to jump off this sinking ship, they’re trying to find contacts in the West, in Ukraine.
But I believe it will all be different soon. These guerrilla attacks will push the Russian elite toward the need to do something. Because asylum can be given to one person, 10 people, but it’s impossible to give it to a wide range of people — they just have to destroy Putin and this regime.
From his lips to God’s ears.