When it comes to the war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have the support of all Russians. That’s been very apparent since the beginning of the war, and many have spoken out against the former KGB leader since the first bullet was fired.
It appears, however that Putin and his closest advisers don’t support this war. Close advisors have packed it up and are walking off.
According to Reuters, longtime advisor Anatoly Chubais has resigned from his post as the Kremlin’s special envoy and fled the country. Although there are many other people who have done this, Anatoly Chubais has been the most visible. He is a Kremlin veteran with a rich and long history. He once served as Boris Yeltsin’s chief of staff and would go on to be Putin’s special representative. In 2020 he was charged with “achieving goals of sustainable development.”
Chubais, 66, was one of Putin’s holdovers from the 1990s and one who had retained very close ties with Western officials according to Bloomberg, and was one of the men who brought Putin forward into power. As noted by Bloomberg, Putin recently vowed to root out western sympathizers from his government, possibly giving an explanation for Chubais’ sudden departure from both Putin’s inner circle and the country:
Known as the architect of Russia’s 1990s privatizations, Chubais gave Putin his first Kremlin job in the mid-1990s and initially welcomed his rise to power at the end of that decade. He was promoted by Putin to high-ranking positions at large state enterprises until he was named president’s representative for sustainable development.
Domestic critics have been under increasing pressure since the outbreak of the war. Putin warned on March 16 that he would cleanse Russia of the “scum and traitors” he accuses of working covertly for the U.S. and its allies. The Russian leader, facing economic crisis, accused the West that he wanted to destroy Russia.
“Any people, and particularly the Russian people, will always be able to tell the patriots from the scum and traitors and spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths,” Putin said. “I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to meet any challenge.”
Because of Chubai’s close connections with western leaders, and the constant contact he had with them over the years, it is likely that he sensed trouble and fled from the country to avoid being targeted.
While this is the highest of high-profile departures, it’s not the first high-profile person to suddenly find themselves on Putin’s bad side. RedState reported that Putin arrested one of his most powerful generals, but the reasons for this arrest are still unclear despite numerous explanations.
So while there’s definitely unease and rejection over the war in Russia’s streets, it would appear that there’s brittle cohesion inside the Kremlin as well.
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