Russian general’s outburst is an earthquake for Vladimir Putin

Major General Ivan Popov may not have intended his explosive farewell message to Russia’s 58th army to reach the public. It was first sent in private to a former general and MP in Putin’s party.

But whether he wanted to or not, he has exposed a mire of paranoia, mistrust, and resentment that if unaddressed could paralyse the Russian war machine.

In peacetime, publicly accusing a superior officer of incompetence and betrayal would be a serious breach of discipline.

Accusing the high command of a “stab in the back” in the middle of a major war – and just a few weeks after a mutiny nearly toppled the government – is on a whole other plane of insubordination.

Russia’s war effort has been plagued by grumbles about the top brass since the war began.

Early on, many of the frustrations of lower and mid-ranking officers and men got a public airing on semi-official war blogs.

Later Yevgeny Prigozhin, the now disgraced Wagner mercenary chief, emerged as a valve for anger at shortages of ammunition, poor logistics, and general incompetence.

He came to relish his role as truth-teller-in-chief, stoking a public feud with defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov that reached crisis point last month.

The result was the 24-hour Wagner mutiny that came close to ending Vladimir Putin’s 23-year reign in the Kremlin.

Mr Putin survived. But the fact Prigozhin is still at large is proof enough that the president’s authority has suffered a fundamental fracture.

Maj Gen Popov’s address shows serious discontent in the ranks reaches far beyond Wagner.

The initial grumble he claims got him fired – that his men were suffering high casualties from enemy artillery because of a lack of counter-battery fire – is standard fare in both the Ukrainian and Russian armies.

If the Russian top brass were doing their jobs, they would be used to fielding such complaints from field commanders.

If he is telling the truth about his dismissal, it indicates a culture of paranoia and a toxic fear of delivering bad news up the chain of command.

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History is littered with the corpses of armies with that problem.

Popov’s voice message has none of the hysteria that came to mark Prigozhin’s foul-mouthed rants.

He speaks in the blunt, to the point, get-the-job done manner of a fighting officer.

Credibility

And he has credibility. For the past month and a half he and his men have successfully – and in defiance of the expectations even of many Russian commentators – held the line against the fury of Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

He clearly feels a bond with his men, calling them his “dear gladiators” (a riff on classical history: his own callsign is Spartacus) and emphasising that he sees no difference between the highest general and lowliest private.

Disgruntled generals with loyal armies are dangerous, as the Kremlin was reminded last month.

Maj Gen Popov can expect to join the ranks of those purged in the aftermath of Prigozhin’s mutiny.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday at least 13 senior officers were detained for questioning, with some later released, and around 15 suspended from duty or fired following the attempted coup.

The corrosion runs both ways.

On Tuesday this week, the Ukrainians fired a British Storm Shadow missile at the hotel in the occupied city of Berdiansk that the 58th army was using for its field headquarters.

Popov apparently escaped unharmed.

But even before his stab in the back speech, some Russian military bloggers were asking who had the motive to leak his location to the enemy.

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