At the start of the summer of 2026, the entire world of Russian war blogging appears somewhat shaken. There is much talk about Ukrainian drone strikes and fuel shortages in Crimea; some even try to analyze developments on Iran's battlefields. But how Russia is supposed to win the war in Ukraine, no one really knows. Proposals of a nuclear strike no longer surprise anyone.

Russian social media personalities sporting the "Z" symbol often complain that the anti-Ukrainian "special operation" is being poorly managed, that commanders are corrupt or simply that Russian forces are failing to beat the Ukrainians as required.

Insulting Russia's Ministry of Defense or even a specific Russian general can often pass without fatal consequences — possibly because such outbursts are seen at higher levels as an indicator of public and frontline troop sentiment.

A clear line is crossed, however, when someone begins to criticize Vladimir Putin directly. That is not overlooked and brings consequences.

Take a recent case: blogger Yegor Guzenko, known on Telegram as "Thirteenth." Alexander Nevzorov, a well known figure to Estonian audiences, has described him as "the most sincere Russian war correspondent."

Guzenko's fate has been covered by outlets such as Radio Svoboda and Deutsche Welle. His military "career" was already colorful before Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, but we'll begin in the fall of 2024, when — after a violent incident — he avoided criminal charges by signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense and once again went to fight in Ukraine.

In April 2026, Guzenko published a post accusing Vladimir Putin of lying about internet outages across Russia. Just three days later, he disappeared. According to fellow servicemen, his phone was confiscated and he was sent to the front line as punishment.

Reportedly, Guzenko was sent into battle despite a serious leg injury — a double open fracture he sustained near Avdiivka was allegedly not healed. Fellow soldiers said he was given a "rusty, jamming rifle" that had belonged to a fallen soldier.

Since then, no reliable information about his fate has reached the public. "This is a one-way ticket for Yegor […] the commanders decided to get rid of our 'Thirteenth' this way," sympathizers wrote on Telegram. In May, claims and video clips have also been posted that are meant to confirm that the man is alive.

His blog channel remains active. However, it is unclear who is posting there now or for what purpose.

When another pro-Kremlin blogger, Ilya Remeslo, suddenly began posting anti-Putin, critical messages this March, the Russian-language online community (Runet) was genuinely surprised. Previously, he had demonstrated himself as an eager pro-regime activist, but now he suddenly declared that he no longer supported the Kremlin leader. "This is a completely dead-end war with enormous losses," Remeslo wrote […] "Right now, this war is being waged solely because of Putin's complexes."

On March 19, Remeslo was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg, but he was released in mid-April. According to speculation circulating on Russian social media, the hospital may actually have served as a lifeline to prevent something worse from happening to him.

At the same time, after leaving the hospital, Remeslo continued giving interviews and promised to keep criticizing the authorities. In an interview with The Washington Post, for example, he compared Russia's current situation to the collapse of the Soviet Union. How long someone like him will be allowed to walk free remains to be seen.

The most notorious of Russia's well-known war bloggers is Igor Girkin (Strelkov), a veteran of earlier fighting in eastern Ukraine who has been sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to life imprisonment for his connection to the downing of a Malaysian airliner in June 2014. Girkin-Strelkov is behind bars — but not in the Netherlands; rather, in his home country, Russia. In 2023, he wrote in a blog post: "For 23 years, an insignificant man has been at the head of the state […] The country will not survive another six years of such cowardly and inept rule."

He was arrested after making such statements and taken into custody. In 2024, a Russian court sentenced him to four years for extremism. Imprisonment has not prevented Girkin-Strelkov from continuing to blog: his partner publishes his texts on Telegram and he even answers readers' questions there. That said, his commentary no longer has quite the same momentum — likely because his contact with sources in the Russian military is now somewhat limited.

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