1/ A huge cache of messages from the phone of Russian Major General Roman Demurchiev provides a unique insight into the inner workings of the Russian army. It reveals a force riven by feuds between generals, plagued by corruption, and full of contempt for superiors and peers. ⬇️
2/ Ukrainian sources have provided Radio Liberty with gigabytes of text and voice messages to and from Demurchiev, most likely as the result of a hack of his mobile phone or instant messenger account. They implicate him directly in numerous war crimes.
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3/ The messages, from 2022–2024, show Demurchiev engaging with other generals in extended dialogues, notably with Major General Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army until July 2023. He and the other generals are scathing about the war and their colleagues.
4/ In an April 2024 message to Major General Mikhail Kosobokov, he complains about the poor quality of officer training. "[T]he fucking Staff Academy," he writes. "I want to piss in their mouths so much they'll choke on their paratrooper piss, fuck."
5/ He is equally unsparing about the low quality of soldier training (which is often negligible), telling 58th Combined Arms Army commander Major General Sergei Medvedev in September 2024:
6/ "People come, we bring them in at night, and they're ready for battle in the morning. They're zero-level trained. They're like collective farmers, and no-one gives them time to prepare."
Inter-service rivalry is also a theme.
Inter-service rivalry is also a theme.
7/ Demurchiev is contemptuous of Russia's Airborne Forces, the VDV, telling Popov in September 2024 that "there is no fucking satisfaction in war, fuck, they brought in this cocky paratrooper force. The Marines [Russian Naval Infantry] are also a fucking cock-eating outfit."
8/ His contempt extends to the FSB, of whom he complains that they are "a fucking scumbag, a real cocksucker. They don't even do anything, fuck, to defend us, fuck. All they can do is monitor who stole how much, fucking assholes. I'm so angry, damn."
9/ Demurchiev shows little joy in having to fight and shows much of the same war-weariness and frustration expressed by many ordinary Russian soldiers. In an August 2023 message to a friendly military counter-intelligence officer, he writes of his colleagues:
10/ "They're all fucking assholes, but they all get medals, fuck. I want to get the fuck out of this army, out of this fucking war, fuck. Liars, assholes, cowards, fuck."
11/ He is equally unhappy with military intelligence, the GRU. He excepts his friend in the GRU, whom he calls "a normal, authoritative guy" but says "the rest are mice, fuck them."
12/ The Russian army has struggled throughout the war with aging and poor-quality equipment, while the Russian government has spent a fortune on wonder weapons such as the Oreshnik missile and Poseidon intercontinental nuclear torpedo. Demurchiev is evidently unhappy about this.
13/ In a message sent after the government publicly announced that Poseidon was now operational, Demurchiev complained: "Bitch, fuck, it doesn't work for us, it's not finished yet. Well, I'm already giving you this secret data."
14/ He contrasted the announcement in a message to Popov sent in October 2023 with the pitiful state of his own equipment: "I, [like] a fucking idiot, have only one Orlan [reconnaissance drone]. I can barely see a nuclear explosion, if there is one, fuck."
15/ A consistent theme of the messages is Demurchiev's open contempt for other senior officers, including Chief of Staff Vitaly Gerasimov, who appears to be widely disliked among the senior Russian military.
16/ In August 2024 he told Maj Gen Alexander Nilov, commander of the 90th Tank Division, that Airborne Forces commander Mikhail Teplinsky "needs to be pissed on, he thinks too highly of himself, fuck."
17/ He told Nilov that Major General Oleg Vlasov, commander of the 810th Marine Brigade, was a "Mongol" and a "fucking bitch." "Four Orders of Courage, fuck. Hero of the Russian Federation. You've gotten fat. I thought to myself, "You're a monster."
18/ Demurchiev was appointed deputy commander of the 20th Combined Arms Army in 2024, apparently after lobbying from his allies withing the Russian MOD. In a May 2024 voicemail, he said that "they want to make me deputy commander of the 20th Army."
19/ "[Lt Gen Oleg] Mityaev is pushing for it, [Maj Gen Oleg] Senkov is pushing for it, fuck. When the papers arrive, I'll go there. Honestly, I don't give a fuck where I go – even to Antarctica, I don't give a fuck, even to Kyiv in a BMP."
20/ He complained bitterly about the 20th Army's commander at the time, Maj Gen Sukhrab Sultanovich Akhmedov. "Fuck, they appointed me deputy commander. The commander is a stupid fucking bitch, he's afraid for his own ass. He sent all the deputies—us—to the fucking front."
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