Volodya Salmanov

I’m trying to wrap my head around the purpose of their actions, Stefan. Were they looking for local support, or even uprisings? Was it just a diversion? Was there a clear objective? How do the members join the units? From within Ukraine, via third countries or even direct from ruSSia?

A: The commander told me the short-term goal was to stress the Russian government and undermine Russian government credibility during The Fag’s re-election. Not a diversion per se, but a raid with ground objectives and media/narrative objectives. That said, he also told me that part of the reasoning behind decision to launch the raid was to draw Russian military resources from sectors in Ukraine. He was very frank that the RVC understands their formation is not going to overthrow Russia by itself.

Members join by finding out about the RVC and making their way to the unit. Most seem to have been, initially, Russian nationals living in Ukraine for several years prior to 2022, and so able to get information outside Kremlin propaganda. For those guys, picking up a weapon to fight made sense because their homes and families were in Ukraine. Others have joined up because they were Russians inside Russia and they decided the The Fag regime must be fought against. It’s not an exact analogy, but a reasonable template for those would be the urban Russian liberal. There were a few adventurer types who seemed like just young Russian guys who want to fight. There were more than a few non-Russians, but overall still a minority. In this category I found guys from Germany, Serbia, some place in South America, and the US. Those guys seemed to have gravitated to the RVC because they were in the UAF’s International Legion before and decided fighting with the Russians was a better gig.

Stewart R. King

Do they have a coherent plan for how they are going to transform Russia, or are they just launching diversionary attacks to support AFU operations?

A: They do not, and they are open about that. Their standard response is that absence of a blueprint for eliminating evil does not excuse a responsible man from opposing evil. In simple terms, they are launching diversionary attacks because “right now” that’s all they are physically capable of.