{"id":582021,"date":"2023-07-09T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/putin-turns-to-smear-campaign-in-power-move\/"},"modified":"2023-07-09T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T10:00:00","slug":"putin-turns-to-smear-campaign-in-power-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/putin-turns-to-smear-campaign-in-power-move\/","title":{"rendered":"#Putin turns to smear campaign in power move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/NEWS-ONLY_prigozhinyevgeny_putinvladimir_070723mm-ap-see-credits_putin.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning to a familiar playbook in shoring up his authority: a smear campaign against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group military leader who led a brief mutiny against the Kremlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Public opinion against Prigozhin dropped sharply in the days after the rebellion.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>So Putin moved quickly to\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/russian-state-tv-attacks-mutiny-leader-prigozhin-says-investigation-still-live-2023-07-06\/\">discredit Prigozhin\u2019s public image<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Putin has directed the state to dismantle the Wagner business empire, including its military, internet troll farms and gold- and other mineral-mining operations on the African continent. And a Russian-state <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> report published what it said were images from a police raid on one of Prigozhin\u2019s palatial homes in St. Petersburg \u2014 pointing out weapons, cash, gold bricks, wigs and multiple passports in a space filled with ornate furnishings, an indoor pool and helicopter pad outside.<\/p>\n<p>Those kinds of moves are meant to discredit Prigozhin\u2019s image among the public,\u00a0who see him as a warrior on the frontline of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine who has called out Russian <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>s as incompetent and corrupt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShowing the wealth that Prigozhin has is a way to undercut his anti-elite message amongst the population,\u201d said Mary Glantz, senior advisor for the Russia and Europe Center for the United States Institute of Peace.<\/p>\n<p>While the Kremlin initially said criminal charges against Prigozhin would be dropped in exchange for him taking exile in Belarus, the mercenary group\u00a0leader <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears to be in Russia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe media hit usually precedes the actual hit,\u201d Brian Whitmore, nonresident Senior Fellow at the Eurasia Center with the Atlantic Council, said during a panel discussion on Thursday.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSo I\u2019m watching this closely, and the first thing that came into my mind when this all went down \u2014 come at the king, you best not miss, Prigozhin missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polling by the Russian-based Levada center documented public favorability of Prigozhin dropping by half \u2014 from about 58 percent to 30 percent \u2014 in the days immediately before and after the attempted mutiny. Polling recorded 22 percent favorability of Prigozhin in early July.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Denis Volkov, director of the Levada center, said that the polling firm was in the middle of a monthly, door-to-door survey and that gave them unique insight into how public opinion changed from one day to the next.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Most respondents appeared to have learned about Prighozin\u2019s mutiny from remarks by Putin or other government sources and after it was largely resolved, influencing their negative views of the Wagner leader, Volkov wrote\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.levada.ru\/2023\/07\/05\/sotsiologiya-myatezha-kakoj-otpechatok-ostavili-sobytiya-24-iyunya-v-obshhestvennom-mnenii\/\">in an analysis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Volkov said their polling found\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.levada.ru\/2023\/07\/07\/otnoshenie-k-vladimiru-putinu-6\/\">little damage to Putin\u2019s reputation<\/a>, with a majority holding a \u201cpositive-neutral assessment\u201d and would like to see him re-elected in Russia\u2019s 2024 presidential elections, set to take place in March 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Levada is considered one of the few reputable polling agencies left in Russia,\u00a0<strong>its<\/strong>\u00a0data is collected in a culture where critical speech against the government and military is heavily policed and nearly all independent <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> and analysis are blocked in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>And while criticism, opposition, disagreements and debates are present in the Russian media environment, it is often blunted or undermined by a stronger, government-backed effort to promote propaganda and sow confusion and mistrust.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey [Russia] do a good job of changing the subject \u2026 that\u2019s kind of what they do often, and so it\u2019s more of like informational chaos,\u201d said Jonathan Teubner, founder and CEO of Filter Labs, which is using artificial intelligence to comb through online communications in Russia to track public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>While the informational chaos serves to discourage the public from mobilizing a unified opposition, it also has the drawback of weakening efforts to organize support.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is they probably need to be motivating their population to believe something, or to do something, and they\u2019re really bad at that,\u201d Teubner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t have another playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Western intelligence said Prigozhin\u2019s mutiny \u2014 which was launched and aborted over a chaotic 36-hours late last month \u2014 has presented the most serious challenge to Putin\u2019s more than two-decade rule in Russia.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But the U.S, allies and experts have held back on predicting the Russian leader\u2019s quick fall from power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople will sort of talk about this that Putin is weak, and why didn\u2019t he follow through on what he said\u2026 but there is a history of him sort of taking these less straightforward approaches to resolving challenges,\u201d said Peter Shroeder, a former senior U.S. intelligence official focused on Russia and who serves as a senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security.<\/p>\n<p>Putin made a rare\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.en.kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/transcripts\/71496\">televised, public address<\/a>\u00a0in the initial hours of Prighozin\u2019s rebellion \u2014 which broke out in earnest on June 24 \u2014 promising to deliver punishment against the mutineers and describing the acts as treason and terrorism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But with the intervention of Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Putin backed off his public threats, saying Prigozhin and his band of mercenaries could take refuge in Belarus. Russia\u2019s internal security service, the FSB,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tass.ru\/proisshestviya\/18126489\">dropped criminal charges<\/a>\u00a0against the Wagner head.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Schroeder called the episode \u201cstriking,\u201d adding that Putin could face consequences for not following through on his words.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutin might not care about the perceptions and believe that through control of state media, he can control the narrative. But, how elites view Putin does matter; it matters to how they will act in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd he won\u2019t be able to hide the fact that he let the rivalry between Prigozhin and the Russian military leadership go on too long and that he had to scramble to prevent a worse outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shoring up public support is a key way to push back against faltering loyalty among the elite, said USIP\u2019s Glantz, and that likely prompted Putin to make a surprise visit and walk among the public in the southern Russian territory of Dagestan, days after Prigozhin\u2019s retreat from his march on Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Video and images showed Putin taking selfies with supporters on the street, at one point kissing a little girl on the forehead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was a\u00a0shocking\u00a0visit for a leader who has largely withdrawn from public life, enacting strict isolation policies around COVID-19 and hosting visitors, from his closest advisors to foreign leaders, in cavernous rooms across a 20-foot table.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things he\u2019s used to help maintain his control of the elites is his ability to say, \u2018the people are with me,\u2019\u201d Glantz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons he went to Dagestan is to be with the people and to show the elites around him, \u2018Look, don\u2019t assume that Prigozhin has their support and I don\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Glantz added that Putin is being cautious, carrying out retribution slowly \u2014 taking away Prigozhin\u2019s wealth, weapons and power \u2014 and asserting himself as more engaged in managing the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is sort of a familiar playbook,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he\u2019s returning to the more active management, to assert that he\u2019s making decisions and he knows what to do and to try and reestablish that maybe he\u2019s not as weak or incompetent as he seems.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/4086070-putin-prigozhin-playbook-shore-up-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning to a familiar playbook in shoring up his authority: a smear campaign against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group military leader who led a brief mutiny against the Kremlin.\u00a0 Public opinion against Prigozhin dropped sharply in the days after the rebellion. So Putin moved quickly to\u00a0discredit Prigozhin\u2019s public image. Putin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":582022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/NEWS-ONLY_prigozhinyevgeny_putinvladimir_070723mm-ap-see-credits_putin.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134344,134343,73798,134661,124783,134904,5019,73234,144093],"class_list":["post-582021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-administration","tag-campaign","tag-defense","tag-energy-environment","tag-international","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-space","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-wagner-group-rebellion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}