General Kirillov's Elimination In Moscow Sparks Intense Reaction In Russia

ISW analysts told the details.

On the eve of the liquidation in Moscow, on December 16, by the forces of the Security Service of Ukraine of the head of the Russian troops of chemical, biological and radioactive protection Igor Kirillov, the Russian authorities tried to pass him off as an "unprovoked act of terror". Official speakers called the reason the "truth" he voiced about "American biological laboratories in Ukraine" and other theses by which the Kremlin tried to justify a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Meanwhile, Russian Z-bloggers and propagandists of various stripes fell into hysteria and demanded the murder of representatives of the military-political leadership of Ukraine.

Analysts, having analyzed numerous statements by Russian propagandists and official speakers, concluded: Russia decided to pass off the liquidation of Kirillov as an "unprovoked terrorist act", keeping silent that he was involved in the preparation of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine and was directly responsible for Russian chemical attacks and information operations against Ukraine.

Thus, the representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia Svetlana Petrenko said that this agency qualified the liquidation of Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov as a "terrorist act". And the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, emphasized his significant contribution to the spread of numerous fake Russian chemical and biological weapons: according to her, this Russian lieutenant general "for many years systematically, with facts on his hands, exposed the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons."

In this pretentious formulation, ISW analysts agreed only with the statement about Kirillov's long-term and systematic activities – however, in the spread of outright fakes and meaningless statements.

In particular, Kirillov stated that the United States had created "biological laboratories" in Ukraine and other states neighboring the Russian Federation, and also that the Pentagon allegedly destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in order to infect Russians with dangerous infectious diseases through mosquitoes.

Fakes about "American biological laboratories in Ukraine," added the ISW, "were used by the Kremlin as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

According to numerous Russian propagandists and officials, in particular a member of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security Vladimir Chizhov, Western and Ukrainian security forces "hated" Kirillov for "exposing Western provocations in Russia."

Whatever it was, the liquidation of Kirillov pretty frightened and angered the ultra-nationalist segment of the Russian information space.

In particular, one Kremlin-linked military blogger called on the Russian authorities to target Ukrainian commanders instead of “launching 100 missiles at the energy infrastructure” and lamented that Russia remains vulnerable to Ukrainian agents on Russian territory.

“Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev tried to reassure the Russian ultra-nationalist crowd by claiming that the Russian military would avenge Kirillov's death by targeting the military-political leadership of Ukraine – something the Kremlin has long sought to do,” the ISW added.

Another propagandist is convinced that the liquidation of Kirillov once again confirmed that Ukrainians are capable of conducting complex operations, despite Russia's successes on the front line, and hinted that more Russians should stop treating Russia's war in Ukraine as a war in the Donbas.

The third military blogger argued that Russia could not win this war by simply launching unguided aerial bombs and the Oreshnik ballistic missiles against Ukraine. He, like his numerous "like-minded" people, is sure: Russia needs to destroy the Ukrainian military and political leadership. Such statements, analysts say, "actually undermine the Kremlin's recent attempts to present the Oreshnik as "Russia's newest powerful weapon".

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