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Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilise an additional 300,000 soldiers to continue the invasion of Ukraine has sparked terror among the civilian population. The Kremlin has since been rocked by a wave of widespread anti-war demonstrations and thousands of Russians have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the call-up to the frontlines. As dissent among the population grows, Russian political commentator Vladimir Ashurkov has suggested the new Kremlin leader who succeeds President Putin would likely push for an end to the war in Ukraine and seek a civil relationship with the Western powers despised by the current leader.
Ashurkov, a long-time ally of Russian opposition leader Alexy Navalny, told Times Radio: “It is more likely that whomever comes after Putin will seek retrenchment with the West and will seek an end to the war in Ukraine.”
He continued: “This war is quite unpopular. People in the business and political elite have seen their lifestyle changed very much, their fortunes decimated.
“It also has been quite bad for the average Russian. There is demand for peace.
“A new person, he will not be as strong as Putin in terms of his authority. He will have to accommodate this demand.”
Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on the partial mobilisation of 300,000 men on the 21st September.
The decision, announced by the President in a national address to the Russian population, heightened civilian concerns that the war was escalating.
Anti-war protests tore through major cities within Russia, resulting in the arrest of more than 2,400 in the following week, according to independent human rights organisation OVD-Info.
Under pressure from an internal revolt, President Putin himself confessed in a later meeting with the Russian Security Council that “mistakes” had been made in the mobilisation operation.
Read more: WATCH – Ukraine’s 40th Artillery Brigade destroy Russia’s fuel storage
Ashurkov explained it would take a well-coordinated and widespread operation across multiple political levels within Russia to topple President Putin’s power.
He reported: “It will probably take a mass protest wave among the wide population and also some conspiracy at the top of Russian echelons of power, but we wouldn’t know about this conspiracy until after the fact.
“We cannot count on somebody taking out Putin in the short term.”
Vladimir Putin has also worked hard to quell signs of growing unrest among the Russian population by increasing penalties for those who disobey executive orders. Shortly after the mobilisation decree, the penalty for evading the call up for military service was doubled from five to ten years imprisonment.
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