Russian nationalists ask Putin to continue fighting in Ukraine. How influential are the “Z patriots” in Russia

While Russian President Vladimir Putin explores a potential peace agreement to put an end to the Ukraine war, home nationalists, radicals and anti -Western, a campaign to maintain the conflict, reports Reuters, taken by news.ro.

“We surrender our weapons, we surrender our country!”, A Pavel Gubarev, a pro-Moscow activist from the Eastern Ukrainian region Donetk, controlled by Moscow, revolted by the prospect of a conflict to be “frozen” on the current lines.

For someone in the West, it may seem at first glance that Putin is under pressure, writes Reuters. However, the so-called “Patriots Z”-appointed according to the symbol that the Russian forces in Ukraine paint on their vehicles-must comply with certain rules and do not eventually represent a threat to Putin, three people close to Kremlin said. It is expected that they will respect the line, if and when the time comes, to make peace, these people said.

At the same time, Putin and his information agencies must handle radicalized nationalists in Russia to ensure that they do not disturb their goals, the three people said.

“Not everyone is under control”

Analysts say that, supporting the continuation of the war, while US President Donald Trump and some Western-European leaders are pressure for an understanding, Patriots Z can sometimes go too far to be to the Kremlin, arousing the public's anger and creating expectations for a more ambitious campaign.

“They are not all under full control,” said Tatiana Stanovaia, senior member of the Center of Carnegie Russia Eurasia, who has been studying the Kremlin for years.

Stanovaia, which the Russian authorities appointed last year “foreign agent”, noted that some Z patriots asked the Russian army to conquer the Ukrainian cities Kiev and Odessa and even attack Poland. Such targets far exceed what Putin, who claimed four Ukrainian regions as part of Russia – in addition to Crimea – said Russia's war objectives.

“The fact that people arouse people and push society to support a larger military campaign is an obstacle and work to determine them to what they say or demonstrate, because they arouse society when Putin has to discuss,” Stanovaia said.

Some of the Patriots Z – bloggers or war correspondents – have half a million followers or even more on the Telegram social platform and are widely read in Russia, including the elite, abroad and Ukraine. But they have to navigate carefully.

The nationalists who intersected with the Kremlin in the past have encountered problems-especially the rebel leader of the Wagner mercenari group, Evgheni Prigojin, and the declared ultranationalist Igor Ghirkin. Prigojin died in a plane accident, and Gherkin was incarcerated.

The Kremlin rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin killed Prigin as revenge for his revolt of 2023. He states that he does not intervene in the judicial proceedings, which is challenged by critics.

The risk of purification for the most radical

Analysts say Patriots Z have been useful to the Kremlin, helping him to build and maintain a wide public support for the last three years. But the Z patriots who do too much tamm about a possible peace agreement risk being purified, said the three sources, who spoke subject to anonymity. One of the sources said that ultra -nationalists will quickly change their rhetoric once the Kremlin decides on a peace plan. “It will be like pressing a light switch,” the source said.

After Putin proposed direct peace discussions with Ukraine, in Istanbul, at a press conference held in the night in the Kremlin, some ultranationalists quickly expressed their concern. A team of Russian negotiators is on Thursday in Turkey for discussions, with little, at least apparently, present.

“Our war will continue until the complete liberation of Novorosia and Malorosia,” Konstantin Malofeev, a nationalist tycoon, who is married to a high -ranking civil servant who reports to Putin. He has used terms that refer to the Russian Empire and describe an area of ​​Ukraine today that has been led by the country.

Meanwhile, Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian president who is currently vice-president of the Security Council and who once presented as a pro-Western Liberalist, said X on Saturday that an armistice would provide a “break” to the Ukrainian army.

Medvedev has gained his reputation to make extreme and lacking in diplomacy, but his statements reflect a current of thinking among Kremlin personalities, five diplomats consulted by Reuters said. As a former head of the Kremlin, analysts and one of the sources said that Medvedev – who remains close to Putin – enjoys a certain freedom of expression.

One of the sources said that the belico statements of nationalists such as Malofeev – although sincere and not scenarized – are a way to find out whether the Kremlin is truly close to the peace in Ukraine or not.

GHIRKIN case

If and when the war ends or is close to end and the situation changes, such people will feel that the wind has changed, the source said. Those who do not adapt their behavior could reach prison, another source said.

The authorities have made two very obvious rules: do not criticize Putin staff or the army chiefs. According to a law adopted immediately after tens of thousands of Russian soldiers entered Ukraine in 2022, the “discredit” of the army is punished by up to 15 years in prison.

After accusing Putin and the heads of the army of failure in Ukraine, Ghirkin, former FSB officer and commander on the fighter field for a war crime in the West, was convicted of inciting extremism in 2024 and received four years in prison. However, he wrote on social networks on prison Monday that “just a fool or a sabotor who secretly helps the enemy in the informational sphere could talk about the imminent end of the war and any compromise.”

Evgheni Prigojin, the founder of the Wagner mercenari group, led his people in a failed and bloody march on Moscow in June 2023 to try to remove the then defense minister and deviated into Putin's personal criticisms. He died in a plane accident with his top lieutenants, two months after the revolt. Putin later suggested that the plane had been thrown out with hand grenades, while the ones on board were drunk and drugged.

Many Russians associate the “Z” patriots label with bloggers and war correspondents, a group that became prominent after the beginning of the conflict. Being an open voice in the early stages of the war, the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense subsequently invited many of them to information sessions to try to co-opt them. Currently, some reissue the press releases of the Ministry of Defense together with their own analyzes; Others remain more open.

The ramifications of the “War Party”

But the so-called “war party” also includes a larger group of voices, including deputies of the State Duma, the Lower Chamber of Parliament, and so-called “political technologies” who shape public opinion in the state television shows dedicated to the war, which are broadcast at the time of maximum audience and which offers a useful service.

Among the supporters of the war are personalities related to the Ministry of Defense, information agents, law enforcement agencies and persons who have been or remain close to Putin.

Those who are allowed to participate in the war -debate TV shows regularly launch crazy threats to the West, such as the use of nuclear weapons against Great Britain or the invasion of the Baltic countries.

A fourth source inside Russia said that the desire to prolong the war in some circles was determined by internal pressure inside the system on Putin to permanently solve what they consider to be the problem of Ukraine in Russia.

Stanovaia from Carnegie, which, based on the polls, estimated that the opinions of the Z patriots are shared by 10-15% of the Russians, said that Putin's firm ideas mean that nationalists do not have a serious influence on it. “Without radical external changes, Putin undertakes to end the war in his terms,” ​​she said referring to her territorial and security objectives declared in Ukraine. “He is ready to bear a war for years or to achieve his goals in a different way,” stresses the expert.