Doctorow reports that Russia’s second largest party challenges Putin for his leadership failure
Paul Craig Roberts
Russians are tiring of Putin’s unwillingness to bring to an end a war, now in its fifth year, that should have been ended in three weeks.
A member of the Russian Duma and of the opposition party warned Putin in the Russian Duma that “If you do not change course in a fundamental way, then by autumn we may expect what happened in February 1917.”
February 1917 was when Russian elites together with Russian army commanders forced the Tsar’s abdication, thus setting up a powerless government for Lenin to overthrow with the question, “Who chose you?”
The challenge that Gennady Zyuganov threw at Putin indicates the dissatisfaction Russians are feeling about Putin’s high interest rates by which Putin is enabling Washington’s sanctions, and Putin’s never-ending war in Ukraine, a war that should not have lasted three weeks, thus raising the question whether profiteering on war contracts have become more important than victory.
Thanks to Putin’s incomprehensible way of conducting war, Russian and Ukrainian military and civilian casualties have been maximized, the capability of the Russian military discredited, the war has expanded with Europe preparing for war with Russia, nothing whatsoever has come of US-Russian-EU-Ukraine negotiations, and innumerable Russian school, hospital, energy, military, and civilian residential sites have been attacked with mounting Russian civilian casualties–all for no other reason than Putin refuses to win a small conflict. Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, reports that 8,012 Russian civilians have been killed and 27,872 wounded. By keeping the war alive, Putin has caused Russian civilians to pay with their lives and injuries for oligarchs’ war profits as drones and missiles increasingly hit deep inside Russia far from the battlefield. Miroshnik reports 1,725 Russian civilian casualties during the first three months of 2026. https://sputnikglobe.com/20260424/over-8000-russian-civilians-killed-by-ukraine-since-february-2022—ambassador-miroshnik-1124033496.html
Does one conclude that someone in Russia is making a lot of money from the conflict and Putin is maximizing their profits for them?
Here is Doctorow’s take: