A leading ally of Vladimir Putin has openly criticized the president and issued a veiled “king of the rains” warning after Russia’s retreat from Kherson.
Posting on Telegram, Ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, known as “Putin’s Brain,” called the Russian president an autocrat with ultimate power over the war as he accused him of “surrendering” the city on November 12.
He said that the retreat undermines Russian ideology by failing to defend “Russian cities.”
On 30 September President Putin formally annexed four Ukrainian provinces, including the southern Kherson region, into Russia.
Pro-war Dugin, whose daughter was killed in a Moscow car explosion earlier this year, said an autocrat has a responsibility to save his nation all by himself or face the fate of the “king of the rains,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The U.S. think tank said the quote was a reference to Sir James Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’, where a king was killed because he was unable to deliver rain amidst a drought.
The ISW added: “Dugin also noted that the autocrat cannot repair this deviation from ideology merely with public appearances, noting that ‘the authorities in Russia cannot surrender anything else’ and that ‘the limit has been reached.'”
Dugin then referenced the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
According to the ISW: “He (Dugin) suggested, however, that Russia must commit to the Rusian idea rather than pursuing the ‘stupid’ use of nuclear weapons.”
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The loss of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, adds to the list of growing setbacks suffered by Russia, which has lost more than 77,000 troops since the start of the war, according to Ukrainian estimates.
Russia has rarely published its own figures and its estimates have been much lower than Ukraine’s. Both figures have been scrutinized as not being accurate by outside observers.
Dugin has been joined by other outspoken national figures who have expressed frustration at the Kherson retreat.
Russian state TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, who is nicknamed “Putin’s voice” due to his support of the president, expressed frustration at Moscow’s forces blowing up bridges as they retreated from Kherson.
On Saturday, Solovyov, appearing on his Vesti FM radio show ‘Full Contact,’ claimed Russia had withdrawn its troops from some parts of Ukraine as a “goodwill gesture.”
But he soon became increasingly animated and suggested the Russian army should have attacked Ukrainian infrastructure earlier as he discussed reports that troops had blown up bridges across the Dnipro river during their retreat.
He said: “I’ve been screaming out loud since February that we need to strike the bridges, destroy the infrastructure, delivery entryways. They [Russian military] said, ‘You don’t understand anything, they’ll bring their equipment to the same area and we will smash it!’
“So did you smash it? You don’t understand, it’s a brotherly nation, we’ll have to restore these bridges, we’ll enter through them.”
He added: “Where? Where will we enter? When they were leaving [Kherson], they blew up the bridges. Where are we going to enter?”
Newsweek has contacted the U.K. Ministry of Defence and the Kremlin for comment.
