Guerrilla fighters opposed to Vladimir Putin's regime hope to intensify their cross-border raids into Russia.
Caesar, the spokesman for the Freedom of Russia Legion, spoke at length about his vision to โfree all our territory.โ (RELATED: Rare Cross-Border Attack Into Russia By Insurgents Continue)
Caesar is adamant that weapons, not politics, are needed to end Putin's two-decade reign. He adds that more incursions into Russian territory will capitalize on the instability created by the Wagnerites' coup. (RELATED: Was Wagner Group's Russia โCoup' Staged By Putin?)
The Guardian reports:
โThere will be a further surprise in the next month or so,โ Caesar,ย a spokesperson for the anti-Putin paramilitary group, said in an interview with theย Observerย in Kyiv. โIt will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.โ
The legion, consisting of around 200 Russian military volunteers, carried out attacks in May and early June. Itย occupied border villages near the Russian city of Belgorod, skirmished with the Russian army, and took 10 Russian soldiers captive. Two members of the anti-Kremlin militia were killed, Caesar said.
He described the recent incursion near the town of Shebekino as a โlocal raid and reconnaissance operationโ. Caesar, who moved toย Ukraineย when Moscow's full-scale invasion began, said he packed his Russian passport. โThe border guards ran away. There was no one to show it to,โ he joked.
Western intelligence analysts estimate 97% of Russian military forces are in Ukraine.
A former fitness coach from Sochi and St Petersburg, Caesar's real name is Maximillian Andronnikov. Critics have ridiculed the legion as a tinpot PR project run by Ukraine's capable military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov. Russian state media has dubbed the 49-year-old Caesar an extremist and a Nazi. Prosecutors have charged him with crimes including treason to the motherland.
Andronnikov admits his unit couldn't function without Ukraine's assistance but says they operate independently inside Russia.
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3 Comments
With Putin’s agenda to re-unit the U.S.S.R. and the small number of Russian people that belong to the Communist Party, he is is real danger. His army is not succeeding in Ukraine the way Putin expected. That is why he hired the Wagner Militia. That could be Putin’s biggest mistake. I sure hope so.
Russian Rev 2 planned?
Ex-KGB Colonel Putin wants to establish himself as ‘Tsar of all the Russia’s’ once again. ‘Vladimir the Terrible’ But it seems that Ukraina, ‘Little Russia,’ doesn’t think much of his demoniac obsession.