Russian hawks are falling in line

From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian military bloggers have informed the West’s understanding of the battlefield and Russia’s view of it. For more than a year, these ultra-hawkish but knowledgeable sources have bucked the Kremlin’s propaganda line to report (often angrily, but surprisingly honestly) about Russia’s chronic military ineptitude and some of Ukraine’s military successes. Until recently, President Vladimir Putin appeared more interested in courting and appeasing them than in reining them in.

But close readers of the daily pronouncements of these so-called milbloggers now report the story has changed. Some of them “appear to be coalescing around the Kremlin’s narrative effort to portray the Ukrainian counteroffensive as a failure, increasingly overstating Ukrainian losses and writing less about Russia's losses and challenges than they had been,” according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Whether a result of the Yevgeny Prigozhin-led mutiny earlier this summer or a perceived opportunity created by the slow pace of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive, the Kremlin now looks intent on tightening up its messaging to persuade Europeans and Americans that Ukraine can’t win and that Western governments are wasting money supporting its defense.

After Prigozhin repeatedly insulted, then directly challenged, Russia’s military leadership, another loudly complaining commander was fired, and a well-known ultra-nationalist blogger and critic was arrested. Now, many of the milbloggers look to have fallen in line with official propaganda.