Igor Zaytsev's blog

There is a theological axiom which is hard to understand: as long as a sinner truly repented all his crimes, all his previous sins could be forgiven by God. If that is how it is, then isn’t it possible to sin and enjoy your life to the fullest, as long as you can repent before you die? What is then the point of having a dull and tiresome life of a good man, if any sinner could can be forgiven?

I don’t know the answer for sure, but I suppose the reason is that hardly any sinner can do it, is because each and every evil act makes his should more callous and the will needed to truly repent much harder. In the end, even if knowing for sure their only way out of hell or whatever awaits them in the afterlife is to repent their past, they just cannot do it.

And here I come the conduct of Russian MoD and high-tier Russian officials. They know all their sins are coming out to the surface during this war. Logically, they should start changing their ways and serve the country and the people, to avoid possible retributions. Instead, we see them starting to pressure the alternative media in order to squeeze the jinnee back into the bottle.

In one of Rybar’s Telegram channel reposts, there is now an open warning towards those officials, that this kind of conduct will only agitate the public and make them resent the MoD, and eventually all of the government, leading, at worst case scenario, to the popular revolt.

People can be lied and politically oppressed to the point. As long as they are safe, entertained and their bellies are full, the majority will stay quiet. But then their life is starting to fall apart, with random people being mobilized, abandoned and then sent to the fronts underprepared and underequipped, when the Russian Army is looking like a sad joke, and half of the world is openly hates them and wish their country to fall apart, then the people are starting to be angry.

Russia didn’t see a real popular revolt since the Bolshevik Revolution of the 1917. We are still far from it, but things are heating up. There is still no government lead initiative to reform the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces. Instead, some club members of the military top echelon are being reshuffled with other club members.

Until someone could explain to me how a ground forces general could become an air-force commander, I would think he is just a tool of the “siloviki” (a political fraction in government which has its base of power in military and other armed agencies like the National Guard) to crush any remaining disloyalty to Shoigu and his lackeys among the power holders in the Russian military.

And all this is done under the protection of Putin’s authority and reputation. The usual Russian naivety is crystalized in the belief that the Tsar is being lied to by his ministers, which prevent him of knowing the reality. And if only he knew the truth, he would instantly purge all the corrupted ones. This is a sentiment which is continues from the Russian tsardome, under which any injustice people are subjected to is seen as opposed to the will of the Tsar, who are like God himself, is the ultimate force for good. Well, at some point this sentiment wears itself down until the Tsar is being dethroned, and usually killed violently.

But exactly like old sinners, president Rasputin and his Great Dukes Shoigu, Medvedev etc., are aware of the dangers and know they have to repent, yet they cannot do it, for their souls have been corrupted to the point of no return. If any of them fall, he will try to drag all the rest down with him. So, their most basic principle of personal loyalty to their group, no matter what kind of crime they committed against the motherland and the people, stands in a way of true, meaningful reforms, starting from the very top of the Russian statehood.