The ring around Putin tightens? One message caused chaos

Critics who largely support Russia's invasion of Ukraine see Putin's government as the main culprit for the military's poor preparation ahead of the war, the high number of dead Russian soldiers and slow progress on the ground.
"While the Kremlin, as usual, delays and procrastinates, our respected Ukrainian colleagues destroy everything they see and can touch," wrote extreme rightist Igor Girkin on the Telegram communication platform after Ukraine used US weapons to attack Russian targets in July.
"It is obvious that the Russian military strategy is not successful," Girkin said earlier in August.
Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian separatists who wanted to annex the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass to Russia in 2014, is one of the most vocal critics of Russia's performance on the front lines in Ukraine. Analysts say Girkin and similar Kremlin critics who are urging Russia to attack Ukraine more aggressively could lay the groundwork for military service, a move Putin has so far not backed down from.
"Those commentators are saying that the Russian government is not doing enough. If Putin decides to increase Russia's military effort, they will support it, they would be happy for it to happen. In that sense, they could be useful. Putin is probably clear that mistakes have been made that cannot be denied. There has to be a place to talk about it. It's fine as long as the criticism is directed at military leaders, not politicians," said Rob Lee, a senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in the US city of Philadelphia. Russian media say Putin met behind closed doors with war correspondents in June.
The Kremlin did not respond to The Wall Street Journal's request for comment. Unlike the Kremlin, which claims that...