Kremlin loses control over Russian information space - ISW

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reportes this. 

It is noted that on March 11 in Moscow, Kremlin journalists, scholars and supporters of Novorossiya held a forum on the “practical and technological aspects of information and cognitive warfare in modern realities.”

During the panel discussion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the Kremlin cannot recreate the Stalinist approach to creating a modern equivalent of the Soviet information bureau for centralized control of Russia's domestic information space because of the struggle between undefined Kremlin 'elites'. 

“Zakharova’s statement is noteworthy and supports several of ISW’s longstanding assessments about deteriorating Kremlin regime and information space control dynamics. The statement supports several assessments: that there is Kremlin infighting between key members of Putin’s inner circle; that Putin has largely ceded the Russian information space over time to a variety of quasi-independent actors; and that Putin is apparently unable to take decisive action to regain control over the Russian information space,” the analysts say. 

ISW's key takeaways:

• Russian forces did not make any confirmed advances within Bakhmut on March 11.

• Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed that there is infighting in the Kremlin inner circle, that the Kremlin has ceded centralized control over the Russian information space, and implicitly that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot fix it.

• Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin said that he would transform the Wagner Group into a hardline ideological elite parallel military organization after the Battle of Bakhmut.

• Ukrainian sources report that Ukrainian forces advanced toward Svatove.

• Russian forces continue to establish fortifications in Zaporizhia Oblast.

• Russian mobilized soldiers continue to publicize complaints that commanders treat them poorly and used them as expendable manpower to patch holes in existent formations.

• Russian occupation officials use children’s healthcare to generate dependency on the Russian healthcare system.