Tsar Vlad's Russia is a gigantic Potemkine village (1)

«What has happened to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine is explained in a remarkable memoir published on VKontakte, Russia’s Facebook, by Pavel Filatyev, a Russian professional soldier (not a conscript). Despite joining an ‘elite’ unit – the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment – Filatyev found there were no beds in his barracks, and often no power or water. A pack of wild dogs roamed through the buildings. He wrote in his diary that there was not enough food: just stale bread and ‘soup’ that was raw potatoes in water. He had to buy his own winter uniform after being given summer clothes and boots in the wrong size. His rifle was rusty and jammed after a few shots.

On paper, his unit had 500 soldiers, but it was really just 300. While, officially, some 200,000 troops invaded Ukraine, he believes the real number was more like 100,000. Filatyev was sent into battle without a flak jacket – no doubt it had been stolen and sold. He was driven to the front in a truck that was carrying mortar bombs but had no brakes. He calls the army a ‘mafia’ and says officers continually lied to the top brass to hide the true state of their units. ‘All this [equipment] is 100 years old, a lot is not working properly, but in their reports everything was probably fine… the Russian army is a madhouse and everything is for show.’

Filatyev’s account comes as no surprise to Yuri Shvets, a former KGB officer. He tells me one story about four Russian tanks arriving in a Ukrainian village. Two ran out of fuel, so the crews hopped on to the other two and they went to look for a gas station. Meanwhile, villagers put Ukrainian flags on the stalled tanks. Having failed to find fuel, the returning soldiers – perhaps forgetting where they had parked – shelled those tanks, destroying them. Then the remaining two tanks ground to a halt. The soldiers tried to leave on foot but were caught by the villagers and handed to the Ukrainian army.

Shvets talks of a Russian ‘collapse’ in Ukraine. ‘It looks like the whole regime, including the Russian armed forces, including the FSB [the main intelligence service], was just one big Potemkin village. Putin made the biggest mistake in starting this damn war because it ruined the village. People are amazed to see that what they believed was Russia was all fake. It was virtual reality. And the reality is different. It is a disaster.’ Shvets believes that defeat in Ukraine, the army trudging home on foot, could be the end of Russia. ‘The army keeps this vast land together… Putin put himself in a corner from which he has no escape. He has killed his country.’. »

Paul Wood, Spectator