Putin’s hawks are turning on each other

Feathers are flying and divisions are widening among Russia’s hawks as the degree to which the invasion of Ukraine was a mistake becomes more evident. It is a powerful reminder that the main threat to Vladimir Putin these days comes not from liberals – largely imprisoned or forced into exile – but from increasingly disgruntled nationalists.

Some of these nationalists opposed the war from the beginning, but most welcomed what they saw as a necessary counter to Nato expansion and Ukraine’s ‘betrayal’ in turning away from Moscow. However, many of them became quickly appalled and angered by what they regarded, with good reason, as the amateurishness, incompetence and corruption which so grievously undermined the invasion.

The result has been a growing fraction of nationalist opinion that is actually coming to see opposing Putin as a patriotic duty. This particular strand of opinion is, it has to be said, still a small minority.