As Ukrainian forces continue to make gains against the Russian army, whispered grievances about Vladimir Putin have begun to fly around the Kremlin about the war and efforts to avoid celebrating his birthday, which falls on Friday.
“It quickly became clear that we’re better off not holding any celebrations right now—it’s not the time,” one source close to the Kremlin told Meduza. “Governors are even thinking about cutting back on this year's [winter] holiday celebrations; nobody has extra money lying around.”
It’s “a sensible idea” to avoid celebrating Putin’s birthday widely throughout Russia, one source from the administration told Meduza. Although many close to Putin fear him, they have lost respect for him, another source said.
“People are scared shitless around him,” a source close to the Russian government told the outlet. “But it’s fear without respect.”
In some cases, Putin himself has begun to receive some grim critiques from within his inner circle about the direction he has taken the war.
“Every 48 hours, there’s another dumpster fire—nobody really understands what’s going on,” a source close to the Kremlin told Meduza. “The people responsible for actually implementing decisions don’t hear about them until the last minute.”
One member of Putin’s inner circle voiced disapproval of how the war is being conducted directly to Putin, according to intelligence provided to President Joe Biden in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a key Putin ally and Chechnya’s leader, as well as Evgeniy Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, have also been pillorying Putin’s war plans publicly.
The mounting disarray in Moscow comes after a series of blows in Ukraine that have sent the Russian military spiraling out of control. In the last month alone, Ukrainians have waged counteroffensives against Russian forces, and have even been able to seize back territory that Russia has illegally annexed in an attempt to claim it as Russian. The Kremlin has even acknowledged this week that although it attempted to annex four regions in Ukraine and claim them as Russian, Moscow is not certain about where the borders of the regions lie.
The stumbles have led Putin into a corner where he has failed to achieve his major objectives even though the war has dragged on for more than seven months. And although he has initiated a partial mobilization to try to replace those lost on the battlefield, he has alienated Russians who are against the war, prompting a massive exodus from the country, and even failed to adequately prepare conscripts for the conflict.
“He doesn’t know how to lose,” one source told Meduza of Putin. “And he especially doesn’t know how to admit he’s losing.”
Putin has also stopped leaning on his advisers to gauge the prudence of his plans, one source said.