Analysts note that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova confirmed the existence of infighting within the Kremlin’s inner circle, likely to “temper the expectations of Russian nationalist bloggers regarding the current capabilities of the Kremlin.”
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) point out in their latest report for March 11, 2023 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already lost control of his propaganda machine. Analysts also believe that there is a confrontation between members of Putin’s inner circle.
The latest ISW report says that the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, confirmed the fact that there is a struggle going on inside the Kremlin entourage. Analysts also point out that the Kremlin has lost control over the Russian information space. And it doesn’t look like Putin is in any way able to influence the current situation.
The report of American analysts says that, according to Maria Zakharova, Moscow cannot follow the path of the USSR under Stalin and create a modern analogue of the Sovinformburo for centralized management of the information space of the Russian Federation due to the fact that there is a struggle between unnamed “elites” surrounded by Putin.
According to experts from ISW, this statement by a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry confirms their assessment of the deterioration of the Kremlin regime and the dynamics of control over the information space.
That is, there is indeed a struggle going on in the Kremlin within Putin’s inner circle, and the President of the Russian Federation eventually lost control over propaganda to a large extent and ceded control over the information space in the country to a multitude of quasi-independent entities. And now Putin has no way to regain this control.
ISW analysts cannot understand why Zakharova openly acknowledged the problems. Experts admit that perhaps for the first time a representative of the Foreign Ministry spoke publicly about the current situation in order to moderate the expectations of Russian nationalist bloggers regarding the current opportunities for the Kremlin to rally around a single narrative or a single policy.
According to the media, Putin is asked to find justice for the founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin. The leader of the Russian mercenaries, according to journalists, stirred up the military elite with his criticism. When he worked in Syria and Africa, he got away with a lot, but after the start of a big war in Ukraine, he began to anger everyone.
