The Economist: The Kremlin Has Launched A Hunt For Z-bloggers

Propagandists began to criticize the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russia's machinery for suppressing dissent has shifted its attention from the government's usual opponents to its own propagandists. In recent weeks, few prominent Z-bloggers have come under pressure from security forces for criticizing the army and officials, The Economist reports.

In September, blogger Roman Alekhin, who has 151,000 followers, was recognized as a "foreign agent." In October, Tatiana Montyan, with an audience of 400,000, was labeled a "terrorist." In November, another Kremlin supporter, Oksana Kobeleva, was detained. One thing unites them: they criticized the Defense Ministry or influential propagandists.

On November 13, a senior defense official, Apti Alaudinov, said that "internal enemies" would be "destroyed legally" and demanded a public apology from the recalcitrant. According to him, "the machine will work so powerfully that everyone will be stunned."

According to analysts, this is an internal conflict in the Z-media: independent bloggers clash with the Kremlin media pool. Since the war began, they have often covered corruption in the army, raised money for drones, medicines and equipment - and the authorities have tolerated it for the time being. But the unspoken pact seems to have broken down: the Kremlin wants to regain control of the money flow and is unhappy with uncontrolled voices.

Although some compare what is happening to the Prigozhin rebellion in 2023, the scale of the current crackdown is much smaller. Z-bloggers try not to criticize Putin directly and do not reveal the real losses. Their task is to maintain the illusion of "nationwide support" against the backdrop of heavy fighting in the Donetsk region, where Russian troops continue to press on and Ukraine is forced to withdraw from a number of villages.

It is telling that the bloggers themselves try to explain the pressure on themselves, avoiding even a hint of accusations against Putin.

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