Conflicts

In its daily report, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank did not spare Russia, accusing it of being quicker to silence bloggers than to act against the Ukrainian offensive on its territory.

According to ISW experts, the Kremlin leader has only been able to present a “weak response” to the Ukrainian incursion. A weakness and inefficiency that prove that Russia “has failed to plan for the possibility of a major Ukrainian incursion” but also that Putin lacks “strategic imagination”. Still according to the ISW, “Putin’s continued reluctance to declare martial law and acknowledge that Russia is in a state of war” explains the Kremlin’s difficulties in building a solid defensive operation.

American experts also believe that Russia prefers to continue its operations on Ukrainian soil rather than deploy reinforcements to Kursk (the region where the Ukrainian invasion began).

Faster when it comes to discrediting bloggers

In its report, the ISW also turns to the country’s communication problems. “The Kremlin seems to have a more coordinated approach to securing its control over the Russian information space than to solving its military problems.” Indeed, the Russian government has launched a campaign to “discredit non-Kremlin-affiliated military bloggers and social media sources that amplify information about Ukrainian operations in Kursk.”

Putin has therefore “severely censored information appearing on social media, claiming that such information creates panic and is advantageous for Ukrainian forces.”

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: L’Indépendant - Picture: by Kremlin.ru via Wikicommons under license Creative commons CC-BY-4.0)