In the quarter century of Vladimir Putin’s rule – he has been prime minister or president since August 1999 – the former KGB man has tried to picture of strong man, savior and defender of the Russian people.
The “special military operation” in Ukraine, as the Kremlin calls it, described the invasionwas presented as a humanitarian project to Saving ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Yet the reality is different. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Putin’s inability to protect the Russian population has been demonstrated time and again. Numerous cities in Russia, including Moscow, have been targeted by drone attacks. In June 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny in which the rebels turned away from Ukraine and marched through Russian cities, causing casualties.
Perhaps most humiliating for Putin is Ukraine’s rapid and sustained invasion of Russia Kursk regionSince August 6, 2024, Ukrainian troops have taken over 490 square miles of Russian territorywhich resulted in the evacuation or flight of more than 100,000 Russians, some of whom reported feeling like you are ‘under fire’ and frustrated because the media downplays the seriousness of the situation.
The Ukrainian advance is the biggest challenge to Putin’s narrative on the war since the invasion began. It also risks making the Russian leader look vulnerable and weak.
As a scholar of post-Soviet statesI see echoes of the past in Putin’s present. When faced with crises, Putin often struggles to respond quickly and decisively to the needs of the Russian people. Since President Boris Yeltsin appointed the then-unknown apparatchik as prime minister on August 9, 1999, Putin seems more concerned with the myth of the savior than with actually saving lives.
The Battle of Kursk (redux)
Kursk plays an important and complicated role for Putin and Russia.
The Battle of Kursk 1944 was a decisive Soviet victory in the “Great Patriotic War,” as many Russians call World War II. It is a powerful symbol of sacrifice and victory that have become part of Russia’s national identity identity under Putin.
As such, Ukraine’s rapid advance through the region in recent weeks – capturing dozens of settlements and Russian soldiers – has been a major blow to Moscow. Russian media outlets were quick to compare the Kursk invasion to that of Nazi Germany, and to highlight the gravity of the situation.
Yet Putin’s response is has been slow and, to many observers, confusing. After several days of silence and evasion, a visibly upset Putin held a televised meeting with top security officials and regional governors, in which he demanded a “dignified response” and payment of 10,000 rubles (US$150) for residents displaced by the raidBut a mass evacuation did not take place until several days later and there were no clear guidelines for the population of Kursk.
While the invasion of Kursk was underway, Putin delegated the “situation” to others. Instead, he traveled to Azerbaijan for a meeting with President Ilham Aliyev and visited a horticultural company.
Lessons from another ‘Kursk’
Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk and Putin’s response to it are reminiscent of an earlier “Kursk” crisis: the sinking in 2000 of the nuclear submarine bearing the region’s name. The Kursk sank during exercises in the Barents Sea after an explosion on August 12, 2000 in the torpedo hatch killed most of the 118 crew.
About 23 survivors of the initial explosion barricaded themselves in a compartment of the submarine, waiting to be rescued. The explosions were picked up by seismographs in Europe, and numerous countries offered to help with the rescue. But Putin refused foreign help until it was too late; on August 21, Norwegian divers reached the sunken submarine and found all crew members dead.
The Kursk disaster revealed what critics claimed: “political paralysis“in the Kremlin, with Putin – only a year into his term – immediately criticized for days of silence about the disaster. He refused to interrupt his vacation in Sochi on the Black Sea and on August 18 – six days after the crisis began – he decided to travel to Yalta in the Ukrainian Crimea for a informal meeting with the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent Statespresented by the then President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma.
On August 23, 2000, a reluctant Putin meet with families of the drowned crew in their hometown of Vidyayevo.
Despite strict controls on foreign media access, the unpleasant exchanges between Putin and angry grieving mothers appeared on Russian TV. It was a disaster for Putin’s image.
According to a witness, Putin was furious about the way he was portrayed in the media, and accused the TV channels of “10 dollar whores“to discredit him.
Failure in the face of terrorism
Since Putin’s meeting with the victims’ families in 2000, Russia’s tightly controlled media has become much more aligned with the Kremlin’s project of portraying Putin as a “protector.”
In line with this narrative, pro-Putin media often portray Ukrainians in the current war as “terrorists” And “Nazis.”
But Putin’s handling of actual terrorist situations once again underscores his failure to protect Russian lives.
Take his handling of the attack in Beslan, a city in North Ossetia, five years after he took office. On September 1, 2004, a group of more than 30 armed militants stormed a school and took more than 1,000 hostages, including children, teachers and some family members.
The hostages were held in the gym without food or water until September 3, when Russian special forces entered the building. The siege ended in a chaotic battle in which hundreds of hostages were killed, including 186 children.
Survivors and relatives accused the Russian government, including Putin, of mishandling the situation and sued the government in the European Court of Human RightsThe court ruled that the Russian government “failed to protect the hostages.”
Disproportionate use of force, mismanagement and corruption have been themes in Russian responses to terrorist attacks. During Putin’s quarter century in power, Russia has seen more than a dozen terrorist attacksthe latest of which was an attack by members of the Islamic State group during a concert in Moscow on March 22, 2024can compete with Beslan in terms of loss of life.
Putin visited Beslan on August 20, 2024 and tried to link current events in Kursk to the attack, saying that “enemies are again trying to destabilize the countryWhat is the same in both cases is that Putin could not protect the Russians.
Protecting the Russians or their image?
The Ukrainian invasion of Kursk, which has been a success so far, has seriously jeopardized Putin’s image as a tough protector – and not for the first time.
There is no doubt that Russian propaganda will do whatever it takes to protecting the Russian president from a domestic audience.
But never in Putin’s 25 years in power has this image been so vulnerable – what emerges here is not so much someone protecting an image, but rather someone protecting that image.
This article has been republished from The conversationan independent, nonprofit organization that provides you with facts and analysis to help you better understand our complex world.
It was written by: Lena Surzhko Harned, Penn State.
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Lena Surzhko Harned is not an employee of, an advisor to, an owner of stock in, or a recipient of funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.
