'Stalin Times': Paranoid Vladimir Putin Hunting for Traitors, Launched 82 Treason Cases This Year Alone
Aug. 8 2023, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Vladimir Putin was compared to Joseph Stalin after it was revealed the paranoid Russian leader launched more than 80 treason cases in the first seven months of 2023, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In the latest development to come as Russian support for the war in Ukraine is reportedly waning, sources revealed that Putin is cracking down on traitors and dissenters at an “unprecedented level.”
According to Daily Star, Putin has launched approximately 82 treason cases in the first half of 2023 – nearly as many as the 101 cases launched in Russia between 1997 and 2017.
The figures are reportedly on a scale not seen since Stalin’s nearly 30-year rule from 1924 to 1953.
"If previously the group of risk included employees of defense enterprises, military personnel and scientists who had access to state secrets, now literally everyone can be accused of treason,” Daily Star reported.
“Even likes on Instagram and subscriptions on Telegram can lead to a criminal case,” the outlet added.
Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer for the human rights project Department One, also expressed surprise at Putin’s increasing paranoia and the number of treason cases that have taken place in Russia since the war in Ukraine started last year.
“Do not forget that the very content of the state secret is a state secret,” Smirnov explained. “That is, not a single person in Russia knows what exactly is a state secret and what is not.”
“Each department has its own secret lists of information that they do not show to anyone,” the Russian lawyer continued. “The FSB has picked up its pace – we get 20 criminal cases a month on average.”
“At this rate, there will be about 250 by the end of December, one for every work day per year.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Putin also recently launched a series of purges throughout his own military ranks after Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a botched coup against the Russian capital in June.
At least 11 top Russian generals were purged between the failed coup on June 24 and this week, and some Kremlin sources predicted the purges launched by Putin will backfire and lead to an “inglorious end” to the war in Ukraine.
“Right now, the fate of the army is being decided, and afterward the fate of the country,” one Russian outlet reported after the three generals were allegedly purged last month.
The outlet continued, “If military officials manage to concentrate their power, trampling all the sprouts of initiative and professional honor in the troops, destroying the last heroes born, the inglorious end of the war is coming.”
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Meanwhile, other Russian leaders are reportedly “lining up” to oust Putin from power due to his failure in Ukraine.
"Everyone in the Ministry of Defense and in the government as a whole is already tired of this war and would like to stop it," one intelligence insider recently said. “You can feel the discontent, so I expect [another coup] could happen by autumn.”