In Russia, far-right nationalists offer rare criticism of war effort

In Telegram channels, critics who generally support Russia’s campaign in Ukraine are faulting the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s inadequate preparation for the war, an unnecessarily high rate of casualties and the slow pace of Russia’s offensive.

“While the Kremlin continues to slowly chew the usual snot, our respected Ukrainian partners are matter-of-factly destroying everything they can reach,” wrote Igor Girkin, a far-right nationalist, after Ukrainian forces struck Russian targets with U.S.-supplied weapons in July. “The failure of the Russian military strategy in Ukraine is obvious,” he said earlier this month…

“A lot of these commentators complain that the Russian government doesn’t go far enough,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “If Putin decides to escalate the war, they will support it, they would be happy with that. In that regard, they would be useful to the government.”

“Putin probably realizes that there are big military failures you can’t deny,” Mr. Lee said. “There has to be an outlet for it. Maybe, as long as it’s directed at the military leadership, rather than political leadership, it’s fine.”