The head of a Russian private militia has called on the army to overthrow Vladimir Putin in what is potentially shaping up to be the biggest threat of revolt the Kremlin has faced since the Wagner mutiny last year.
Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner militia, that are loosely linked to the Kremlin.
The private military company (PMC) has around 300 members and has fought in wars around the world, including in Syria and Africa.
Zakrevsky launched a blistering attack on the Russian president during a video recording in which he blamed all the military failures in Ukraine on Putin personally.
He also went on to accuse Putin of causing all of Russia‘s economic and social ills, as he urged the military to rise up and free the country from the tyrant’s rule.
“Our country is not just on the brink of disaster or already right next to it, our country is already in trouble – in big trouble,” he said.
“Drones are flying all over central Russia, right up to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They even attacked the Kremlin.
“Our Black Sea fleet is being pushed out. It’s being pushed out as if we are not a great power with a great fleet, but some third-rate country.
“Our aviation is practically not working because it is also being pushed out. We are standing in the same positions that we took more than two years ago, and partly in those to which we retreated.
“The population is dying out, becoming impoverished, drinking itself to death – no one cares.
“All they have time to do is bring in migrants. And all this was done by the so-called ‘president’ – ‘The Great’ Putin.”
The video has been extensively distributed among the Russian army and clearly presents an alarming threat to the Kremlin.
Last June, the Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a stunning revolt against Putin, that saw his troop march on Moscow in a lightening attack.
At the last moment Prigozhn appeared to get cold feet and called off his mutiny. He died in an air crash almost two months later in August.
Zakrevsky’s call to arms comes in the wake of a devastating Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory, that has seen Kyiv’s army seize around 800 square miles of enemy land.
The Russian army has struggled to contain the attack, which threatens to undermine Putin’s political position and hold on power.
