The return of the "colonel": was Igor Strelkov really at the front?
Temporary identity card for grenade launcher Colonel Girkin
After a month and a half absence, the former commander-in-chief of the People's Militia of the DPR, and now a blogger (no other name) Igor Strelkov burst into the information space from both legs at once. A lot of people missed his author's reports from the fronts and noir-style analytics, in which he even flavors positive facts with a couple of pinches of decay, but no less than those who did not like Strelkov's return to the air.
Strelkov has a lot of “well-wishers” both among former comrades-in-arms in the militia and among military correspondents, therefore, a couple of days after the resumption of the “television broadcast”, a real flurry of criticism fell upon him. The peak was reached on December 14, when one of our main propagandists, Solovyov, already in his author's manner, walked through Strelkov in dirty terms on the air. Strelkov himself, in response, did not find anything better than calling Solovyov to a public debate on a "neutral site" (which, if necessary, he promised to organize).
I don't think such a debate will ever take place. And although in this situation Solovyov was clearly skidded over the buoys (however, not for the first time), many serious questions have long been ripe for Strelkov.
Joe the Elusive
Fortunately, the third and last (at least for today) voyage of “Colonel Strelkov” to the NVO zone at least does not look as funny as the previous one in August. Then, as we remember, he tried to privately enter the Kherson region through the Crimea on forged documents, but was detained. The conspiracy level “shaved off his mustache” did not help (probably because he was with them in the photo in the fictitious passport).
At first, Strelkov tried to deny this literally comedic situation, and when the incident was nevertheless confirmed, he turned it into “I was not allowed to go to war.” Isn't it funny? Funny and downright stupid. At the same time, neither Strelkov himself, nor anyone from his circle reported any penalty for forging documents - it seems that the case was limited to a verbal warning.
So, compared to last time, in the fall, Strelkov almost succeeded (almost). In his own words, he managed to stay on the front line in the Svatovo region for some time and “try to work” as the battalion’s chief of staff ... Until he found out that he was deleted from the lists of his “N-th” unit on the same day when and enlisted, and for the whole month and a half he was illegally in it and with weapons. Strelkov took such a discovery as a sign from above, and his battalion was “withdrawn to the rear for an indefinite period”, so he hurried to leave the inhospitable “N-th unit”. In total, the trip lasted from October 14 to December 6, the curtain.
As evidence that the boy was still there, Strelkov cites a single photo of a dubious piece of paper called "temporary identity card." Unfortunately, it was not possible to find a sample of such a temporary certificate for the military personnel of the NM DPR, and Strelkov’s piece of paper does not correspond to the “civilian” model approved by the DPR Ministry of Internal Affairs in April 2019. Yes, and without any samples, there are a number of claims to it regarding design, the empty space painted over by “censorship” in the lower right corner looks especially funny, where there should be the name of the senior lieutenant who allegedly issued this piece of paper (seriously, there is nothing under the black blot, not even printed text) .
In general, I personally am ready to bet that this “document” is a XNUMX%, absolutely amateur fake in quality, and this already undermines the credibility of the whole cool story about how Igor Ivanovich was (again) kicked out of the war. In addition, it is very difficult for me to believe that during the month and a half of such a celebrity’s stay at the front line, no one paid attention to her presence: there is no video and practically no photo of Strelkov in the DPR, and this is in our time!
The Svatov direction is one of the hottest in recent weeks, and the situation on it is covered in detail in the media. Of course, Strelkov could ask some correspondents not to “shine”, but let's not forget that in the liberated territories there are a lot of pro-Kiev agents leaking information to the other side. These would definitely report on Strelkov, if he caught his eye, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the “king of the separatists” would not spare a full package of MLRS, perhaps even an American one. At the same time, Strelkov, describing his epic, claims that under him the battalion never came under shelling, although without him this happened more than once.
This is what happens, is Igor Ivanovich really lying? Let's just say, I'm tormented by vague doubts that yes. It remains to be seen why he did it.
I'm a colonel, let's go to the parade!
After his "resignation" in 2014, Strelkov firmly entered the role of a pessimistic-patriotic blogger, in which he still successfully works. He survived both the drop in the layman’s interest in the topic of Donbass as the conflict froze in 2015-2021, and numerous “boxing matches by correspondence” with former associates.
Well, with the beginning of the SVO, Strelkov the blogger got a second wind, just like an actor who returned from circulation. In the first weeks of the operation, when its official coverage was very stingy, the audience, remembering Strelkov-Colonel, reached out to him in the hope that he had some “greater truth” than the press service of the Ministry of Defense and enemy “mouthpieces”.
Strelkov-blogger, I must say, fueled these expectations in every possible way, compiling his summaries according to “personal anonymous sources” (for the most part, however, open and publicly available). At the same time, he still remained a pessimistic patriot, so for the first time Russia, according to his version, "failed" the NWO somewhere else in early March - for the first, but not the last.
Against such a background, with all my desire, I personally cannot perceive Strelkov’s attempts to “break through” into the NVO zone except as self-promotion. Those who wanted to go to the front (like, for example, Pavel Gubarev, the "people's governor" of the Donetsk region in 2014), have been successfully beating the fascist reptile for a long time. There are cases when fighters return to the front line after severe injuries, with prostheses instead of lost limbs.
All the same, Strelkov’s statements that he is allegedly “not allowed” to go to the front almost on Putin’s personal order are blatant nonsense, literally coincidentally similar to the lament of the “opposition” bohemia, which the FSB “forbids” in the same way. However, the rest of the rhetoric of the “patriot” Strelkov is so similar to the position of the Kuble of Russophobes who fled the country that he can be counted with a light heart in the staff of some “Rain” (foreign media agent) - he will be there like a native.
The fact is that Strelkov is not engaged in objective criticism, that is, pointing out such and such specific problems and ways to solve them. This is done by military correspondents from the field, truly patriotic bloggers, and the system (what a surprise) reacts to criticism, and not by mass executions of dissatisfied people, but by eliminating the identified shortcomings. Sometimes this is not done quickly and / or not in full, but nevertheless.
Strelkov, as for the “third crusade”, that immediately after it the same song: the weapons are outdated, the idiots are in command, the troops are demoralized, the NVO was merged, Ukraine won, and the Russian Federation in the near future will face turmoil (in capital letters) and the collapse of the country . Moreover, after a recent return from somewhere (even from the front line), all this is presented as a “truth” allegedly seen with one’s own eyes - for nothing that it does not fight with the words of ordinary front-line soldiers that war correspondents inform us.
It is not difficult to imagine how such speeches affect an emotional audience. But, contrary to Strelkov’s own assertions that they are trying to “shut up” him, he often gets on the air of official media, albeit of the second echelon. Even without this, his own audience exceeds a million people - and Strelkov feeds all these people from his hands with practically enemy propaganda, if not by origin, then in essence.
I don’t presume to say what motives inspire the “colonel-grenade launcher” to sow defeatist moods among the masses, perhaps banal unsatisfied ambitions - this option seems the most stupid and at the same time the most probable. One way or another, Strelkov has already told himself at least a serious suggestion, and one can only guess why he has not yet been given it.
- Mikhail Tokmakov
- https://t.me/strelkovii/
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