Putin makes a rare visit
Spends Friday meeting with top military officials
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to a command post coordinating the war effort in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Saturday, in a rare demonstration of hands-on involvement in the military campaign’s execution and planning.
Putin spent the day Friday at the military headquarters in an undisclosed location, presiding over a general meeting with Russia’s top brass and holding separate ones with various commanders, the Kremlin said. In his opening remarks, carried on Russian state television, Putin said he had come to listen to his commanders’ proposals about the Russian military’s “short- and medium-term movements.”
As Russia’s military campaign has suffered a series of painful and embarrassing setbacks, Putin has distanced himself from the blunder. All the while he has maintained a studied calm, insisting that the war is “going according to plan.”
Putin never commented publicly about his army’s retreat from Kherson — the only Ukrainian regional capital Russia had captured since the invasion in February. He also never made public visits to the front lines or even to territories captured by Russia. Instead, Putin concentrated on economic affairs, such as opening a turkey breeding factory in Siberia in November, trying to show that it was all business as usual in Russia.
The Friday meeting demonstrated a shift in that approach, Russian war analysts said. While few people doubt that any major military decision can be made in Russia without Putin’s approval, the fact that the Friday meeting was made public meant that the Kremlin wants to send a clear signal that the Russian leader is in charge and is interested in the war’s progress, said Yuri Fyodorov, a Russian military analyst.
Besides the stagecraft designed to show he is in control, the meeting served a number of other ends for Putin, analysts said. It presented a rare occasion for him to appear with his top commanders, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, who have faced heavy criticism from Russian military bloggers and are frequent targets of rumors of their dismissal. And by mentioning “mid-term” planning, analysts said, he was able to emphasize his determination, if needed, to see the war through to its conclusion.
In the early stages of the war, Putin delegated the decision-making to
various branches of the military. That has blurred lines of responsibility, but also undermined coordination between troop formations. In October, as it became clear that Russia’s initial drive into Ukraine had failed, Putin appointed Gen. Sergei Surovikin as the commander of the country’s forces.
Some analysts have speculated that Surovikin was appointed as a scapegoat to shift the blame from Putin. Shortly after his appointment, the general announced that “tough decisions” might be coming. In early November, he called for the withdrawal from Kherson.
Dmitri Kuznets, a military analyst for the independent, Russian-language news outlet Meduza, said Putin’s visit was a way to demonstrate that the Russian president “keeps his finger on the pulse and wants the upcoming decisions to be associated with him.”
However, he said, “There are no signs that Russia is preparing a large-scale ground offensive operation.”