Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny has exposed unprecedented cracks in the regime of Vladimir Putin—and the divide keeps widening. On Thursday, decorated Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov attempted to squash the latest controversy coming out of Moscow, only to see his efforts backfire dramatically.
On his radio show, The Full Contact, Solovyov weighed in on news that Major General Ivan Popov, who commanded Russian military units in southern Ukraine, was allegedly dismissed from his position for informing military leadership about the grim realities of Russian forces on the frontlines. In an audio message published by Russian lawmaker Andrey Gurulyov—an ever-present fixture on Solovyov’s shows—Popov complained about the deaths of Russian soldiers and the lack of Russian counter-artillery systems and reconnaissance.
Addressing the scandal, Solovyov compared Popov to Prigozhin and criticized his friend Gurulyov for disseminating the recording. “I think that publicizing his statement is a brave and phenomenally incorrect step. Popov is a respected general who had every opportunity to carry his point of view across, since he knows many people in the presidential administration very well. He could have picked up the phone and gotten his message and his point of view to the Supreme Commander, with whom he met, as I understand it.”