In its daily update, the British intelligence has noted that Russian state television, known for its strict censorship, recently suggested that Vladimir Putin should not be elected the next president of Russia:
“On 27 May 2023, Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin appeared on Russia’s NTV channel and called for a new president to be elected in 2024 in order to rebuild normal relations with Europe.
Nadezhdin has been a vocal critic of the war since the invasion, but this is highly likely the first call for Putin to be replaced on Russian state-approved TV since it began.
In the last 15 months, Russia has introduced limitations on freedom of speech which haven’t been seen since Soviet times.
However, there is a realistic possibility that recent vitriolic rhetoric by nationalist figures such as Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin is emboldening opposition figures to challenge taboo topics,” the British intelligence wrote.
Last month, Prigozhin said that the Kremlin had achieved the opposite effect instead of the proclaimed goals of “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, announced in February 2022.
According to him, the “denazification” announced at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion (declared as a fight against the “Nazi regime,” which the Kremlin considers the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be), instead turned Ukrainians into a nation “known throughout the world.”
Speaking of “demilitarization,” Prigozhin called the Ukrainian army one of the strongest in the world.
Ukraine comparable to peak Roman empire, PMC Wagner head says in rare interview
