Ksenia Rundin
The future of authoritarian information control depends on the cultivation of its critics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers remarks during a face-to-face meeting with Russian war correspondents and pro-Kremlin bloggers. Credit: Kremlin Pool
On a June afternoon in 2023, Vladimir Putin, notorious for his paranoid distance from critics, sat down with military bloggers who had spent months lambasting his generals’ incompetence in Ukraine. They were a curated cocktail: state propagandists mixed with independent war correspondents, who command millions of followers. Together they constitute so-called ‘milbloggers’, or war bloggers.
The meeting was remarkably candid. One blogger complained that ‘the existing bureaucratic system’ promoted desk warriors, while talented commanders languished. Another criticised the defence ministry’s failure to deploy lifesaving electronic warfare equipment. They questioned why promised payments for destroyed tanks never materialised, why medical equipment was scarce in Donbass hospitals, and why conscripts were fighting in border regions.
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