''Putin. War'' (russian: Путин. Война) is a report based on materials prepared by the Russian opposition politician

Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...

about the 2014–2015 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Published on the website ''Putin. Itogi'' on 12 May 2015, it covers the preparations for the

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

and the involvement of Russian troops in the

War in Donbas War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. The report includes testimonials of Russian soldiers taken prisoner in Ukraine and photos of Russian military personnel who died in the hostilities.

Authors

began working on the report at the end of January 2015. After Nemtsov's assassination, his close associate

Ilya Yashin Ilya Valeryevich Yashin (russian: Илья́ Вале́рьевич Я́шин; born 29 June 1983) is a Russian opposition politician who led the PARNAS party from 2012 to 2016, and then its Moscow branch. He was also head of the Moscow munici ...

headed a team of opposition journalists and activists, who continued writing the report and prepared it for publication.

Structure and content

The epigraph of the report is a post by Boris Nemtsov in Facebook on 31 January 2015:

The task of the opposition today is education and truth.
And the truth is that Putin is war and crisis.

The report consists of a preface, 11 chapters and a conclusion. It has 65 large-format pages with 46 color photographs and 8 charts. Chapters: #Why

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

needs this war #Lies and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

#How they took

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

#The Russian military in the east of Ukraine #Volunteers or mercenaries? # Cargo 200 #Vladimir Putin's Army Depot #Who shot down the

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

#Who rules the Donbas #The humanitarian disaster #What does the war with Ukraine cost? Chapters cover the events from the beginning of

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...

when the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

developed plans for the "annexation of Crimea" up to the start of 2015. The report includes information from relatives of Russian servicemen who died in Ukraine. The authors write that Putin's " hybrid war" involves

doublethink Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy. ...

, falsehoods and сowardliness, concluding:

The cowardly and despicable war unleashed by Putin will cost the country a lot. We will be paying for this adventure with the lives of our soldiers, economic crisis and political isolation. We will pay with enmity from our long-time allies. No people are closer and more like kin to the Russians than the Ukrainians. These are our brothers - without any pathos -- and the war between
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
and Ukrainians in Donbas is impossible to characterize in any other way except as fratricide. This war is the shame of our country. But the problem will not go away by itself. Putin must be stopped. And this can only be done by the Russian people themselves. Let us stop this war together.

English version

A special issue of the ''European Union Foreign Affairs Journal'' (EUFAJ) from Germany includes an English translation of the entire report as well as the original text in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

(publication date 21 May 2015). An American

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

, the Free Russia Foundation, also published a translation of the report into English. It was presented on 28 May 2015 at the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Reactions

In Russia, 14 printing companies refused to publish the report.

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

blocked an account raising funds for the report.

Statement to the Prosecutor General

The head of the NGO "Officers of Russia" Anton Tsvetkov sent a statement to the

Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation The Prosecutor General of Russia (also Attorney General of Russia, russian: Генеральный прокурор Российской Федерации, Generalʹnyy prokuror Rossiyskoy Federatsii) heads the system of official prosecution ...

with a request to verify the report ''Putin. War'' for the presence of false information. Tsvetkov said that the facts in the report are based on distorted and anti-Russian sources.Генпрокуратура проверит «доклад Немцова» на клевету
// Известия. — 2015. — 15 мая.

References

Links

''Putin. War''

Доклад Немцова
on putin-itogi.ru
pdf-file of investigation
on

Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In addi ...

Boris Nemtsov's parting shot
{{Authority control Anti-war movement Opposition to Vladimir Putin People's Freedom Party Russia–Ukraine relations Vladimir Putin War in Donbas 2015 documents 2015 in Russia