Russia on brink of revolt as ultranationalist calls on army to overthrow Putin

 A leading Russian ultranationalist has launched a scathing attack on Vladimir Putin and called on the army to rise up in rebellion against the Kremlin regime. Pavel Gubarev is a veteran of the so-called "Russian Spring" and was a staunch supporter of Putin's attempts to annex Ukraine's eastern provinces in 2014.

In March of that year, he was elected governor of Donetsk at a meeting of pro-Russian activists in the city of the same name. Later, he stormed and occupied the Donetsk Regional State Administration building with a group of pro-Putin protesters.

After fighting in Ukraine with Putin's army in 2022, he went on to become one of the leaders of the Russian ultranationalist group the Club of Angry Patriots.

However, he has become increasingly disillusioned with Putin and his regime, and has now called on the army to prepare to overthrow the Kremlin should a peace deal be signed.

In an appeal to the Russian army, he said: "While the war with the external enemy is going on, our criminal government is fighting against the interests of the country and specifically against the Russian people, causing damage to Russian statehood incomparably greater than what Ukraine (together with NATO) is doing.

"Think carefully before voluntarily disarming after the end of hostilities. There may be no other options.

"We surrender our weapons - we surrender the country! Russia and our people in the current situation will be saved only by the Organisation of the Armed Russian People!"

Gubarev justified his call to arms due to concern that Russia was crumbling due to "a growing crisis in the economy and public life" and the real possibility of military defeat in Ukraine.

He argued that the only thing keeping Putin in power was fear, which "permeates the entire system."

"Putinism is a system of power relations based on fear," he said.

"In Putinism, fear is the main emotion on which the entire system of society is built.

"The elements of the system are afraid of each other (bureaucrats of the security forces, security forces of the bureaucrats, judges of both).

"The institutions of civil society have been destroyed and replaced by fully controlled imitation structures."

He added that Putin had created a cult of personality that is "deified" by his true believers.