The General & the Journalist Fear and loathing in Moscow - Putin, Iran and a coup?
19 snips
Mar 26, 2026 
Mark Galeotti, a historian and author who studies Russian politics and organized crime, joins to unpack Moscow's oddities. He highlights strange defections and paranoia in the Kremlin. He charts competing military doctrines and how the Iran conflict reshapes Russian strategy. He explains why Moscow views a weakened but intact Iran as useful and how global attention shifts from Ukraine.
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The Blogger Who Turned Against Putin
- Ilya Remeslo, a former pro-Kremlin blogger, published a sudden denunciation of Putin then appeared in a psychiatric hospital.
- Remeslo had 90,000 Telegram followers and had pivoted from Navalny critic to war cheerleader before the abrupt break.
Putin Receives a Distorted Picture Of The War
- Putin is insulated from battlefield reality by sycophants and filtered reporting.
- Gerasimov's public claims of territorial gains contrasted with real losses, showing systemic information distortion reaching the president.
Routine Security Steps Look Like Signs Of Collapse
- Visible security measures and internet outages amplify public anxiety and elite paranoia in Moscow.
- Routine FSO deployments and checks now read as signs of instability because a pervasive sense of uncertainty magnifies every action.