"Putin Is Now Paranoid And Afraid Of A Conspiracy."

• 16.04.2026, 19:40

The system began to devour even the most loyal.

Blogger Viktoria Bonya and actor Ivan Okhlobystin, who until recently remained part of a public field loyal to the Kremlin, have begun to openly resent Internet blockades and increased scrutiny.

Why is it now that even well-known pro-government bloggers and Z-persons who have long worked for the Kremlin have begun to openly grumble against Putin and his policies?

This is the question Charter97.org asked Ukrainian politician and former Verkhovna Rada deputy Boryslav Bereza:

- Look, there's a very interesting point here. To begin with, they do not name Putin publicly. This is like the story of Voldemort from Harry Potter, about whom everyone knew, everyone understood who he was, but they didn't risk naming him. The reason is because of the very great danger to each of them. These people clearly saw that whoever you are, whatever position you occupy on the social ladder, if you open your mouth, you can disappear. In a good way - from the media field, in a bad way - from life. So they don't want to take the risk.

Why are they grumbling? It's very simple. They are experiencing extreme discomfort. They are confronted with something they have forgotten about. When they shouted that they wanted to go to the Soviet Union 2.0, they thought it was the USSR, where there is internet, freedom, Instagram, Facebook, where it is safe to use good cars. But they are offered a classic Soviet Union: with restricted rights and freedoms, with strict control of the information field, with no Internet, which, by the way, they did not have in the Soviet Union. Moreover, not only because it did not exist then, but also because even radio frequencies were jammed so that people would not listen to so-called Western voices. And now they are being rolled back to that period.

But they forget one more thing. The authorities have no desire to stop rolling back the Soviet Union into the 80s. FSB and KGB people like 1937 very much. That's why the rollback is going on and on.

Russian stars, starlets, opinion leaders, public bloggers suddenly faced the fact that, first of all, they are losing money, because Instagram and social media gave them the opportunity to earn money. They are faced with the fact that they can't order a regular "Yandex.Taxi" or food because there is no mobile internet. They can't see where to go, and they don't know their cities. They are all newcomers.

Faced with this, they suddenly realized that life in a golden cage is not very comfortable, because they may not be fed on time. And this is where they start to grumble. But not at Putin, but at some unknown uncle who screwed it all up. And I'd like to ask them: well, you wanted a goida and movement, didn't you? Didn't you support all this? Didn't you vote for it when you elected that bald moth, who took a cockroach from Belarus as his servant? And when they attacked Ukraine together, Putin and Lukashenko, did you support it with your silence or Z-lycoving?

I would like to recall a Ukrainian saying that goes like this: "Did you see what you bought with your eyes? Now eat, don't spill your guts." Their only protest is not a protest against any restrictions imposed by the authorities, but a protest against their own discomfort.

And recently there was a video in Russian social media that even the deputies who voted for these restrictions use VPNs. This only shows that they are all puppets of the regime, submitting to Putin's will in silence. And they have only one resentment: that they are personally uncomfortable, and they are prepared not to think about everything else.

- Can this discontent grow into a wider protest - among the elites and ordinary Russians?

- I don't believe in protests among Russians. I don't believe it because I've seen where previous protests have led. I realize that the only thing it can really lead to is discontent among the elites and a split within the Russian political elites, which can really lead to a change in power.

This is when those people who are now being forced to "uncheck" for war, as big business calls it, those people who are tired of being restricted and are already tired of war, those people who want to go to their villas on Lake Como or in Monaco, those people, those people who earn money in Russia but cannot spend it on anything because they have to accept the fact that they are being watched and at any moment they can be zeroed out and their capital divided among themselves by other members of the political or business Kremlin party. These people begin to grumble and are dissatisfied.

And they, who are now mostly oriented towards Kirienko, whose entourage is also under attack, can now create such a threat.

Will this lead to Putin's removal from power? Well, look, there were stories, there was Khrushchev in the history of the Soviet Union, there was the story of Stalin, who was dying in a puddle of urine, no one wanted to help him, everyone stood and watched. There was Beria, who thought he would overtake the power and images of government, but instead ended up in a cell and then got his 9 grams of lead.

So Russian and Soviet history knows snuff boxes and yellow scarves. Yes, anything can happen, but the fact that Putin is now paranoid, afraid of a conspiracy and, by the way, by the way, one of the reasons for the shutdown of everything - media, Internet networks and cell phones - is connected with Putin's paranoia, says only one thing: he sees such a threat. Will it materialize? We'll see. But we all remember that Russian rebellion is absolutely absurd and wild.

That's why they may, as always, as Shchedrin once wrote, that "serfs will come out in front of the baron's house, kneel down, stand and keep silent, because they realize that they are rebelling, but they still stand and keep silent. So I don't really believe in rebellion, but I do believe in a conspiracy of the elites, which could lead to something.

- Why else would the Kremlin go to such unpopular measures as disconnecting the Internet, and will Putin decide to further tighten it?

- After Israel, with the help of video cameras and mobile Internet, destroyed almost the entire top leadership of Iran, Putin banned these processes. He got scared. He was really afraid for himself. That's the first thing.

Secondly, social media traditionally try to shrink or limit when they control information flows before some events. For example, before a total mobilization. In order to reduce the possibility of outrage or some kind of protests. The third and most important reason is that this is an attempt to take control of the entire society and model it at will through the channels and resources that remain. For example, the messenger Max or something else.

And at the same time, having driven everyone into the messenger Max, and this is the Kremlin's idea of a fix today, to keep an eye on everyone, as in Orwell's novels. Because big brother wants to watch you.