(RightWing.org) – In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin “annexed” the Crimea region of Ukraine while at the same time supporting the separatist movement in the so-called but unrecognized Donetsk People’s Republic. In February 2022, he sent his military forces into the country again, hoping to quickly capture Kyiv and bring the entire country under his control. He did not anticipate the firm resolve of the defenders under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Russian army became bogged down in a war of attrition. Now a group has been formed, and they are warning about what they see as catastrophic damage to Russia should it lose the war or even negotiate peace.
The Club
The “Club of Angry Patriots” appears to be made up of hardline nationalists who reportedly view the failure to quickly overrun Ukraine as a recipe for disaster. An analysis by the Institute For the Study of War claims that Pavel Gubarev, who once styled himself as the People’s Governor of Donetsk Oblast, has said the only way to make sure the war is won is “a revolution — either from within the government or in society.”
The reported founder of the club, Igor Girkin, published a “manifesto” of sorts in which he said Ukraine has “become an instrument of NATO” and blasted the leadership of the country as an “incompetent organization at the strategic, operational [sic] and tactical level.” Like Gubarev, he took on a political title within the Donetsk Oblast, styling himself as the “defense minister” and was one of the men who brought a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system into the area from Russia.
While trying to bring down jets of the Ukrainian Air Force in July 2014, Russia instead managed to hit Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), destroying it and killing the 298 passengers on board. The Kremlin was left out of the investigation that led to a criminal conviction for Girkin and two others who received life sentences, but they refused to accept the results, according to the state-run site Tass.
While the Angry Patriots could represent a danger to Putin and his regime with their talk of coups and revolutions, a takeover of the military could be very problematic for the world at large. In December 2022, Girkin went on the record during an interview saying he believed the Russians should preemptively use tactical nuclear weapons. He claimed he had little or no concern over the moral aspects of using weapons of mass destruction against an enemy, and at the same time, claimed that if nuclear weapons were used against his country it would constitute a crime.
Gubarev, who is Ukrainian by birth, reportedly posted a video in October where he claims the military invasion was not launched with the intent to kill civilians but to change their minds. However, he bluntly told anybody who might watch it that they would exterminate all of them if they did not come to realize that they are “possessed” and went on to claim that “[Zelenskyy is] a possessed spawn, Hitler 2.0.”
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