ISW: putin unable to regain control over russia’s information sphere

russia's president vladimir putin has lost control over the information space in his state.

russian forces didn't make any significant advance to capture Bakhmut on March 11, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says.

Ukrainian and russian sources constantly talk about fierce battles in the city. However, the militants of the Wagner Group are likely to become more and more trapped in the city's industrial districts. Namely, such as the AZOM plant, and therefore it is difficult for them to achieve significant progress.

The spokeswoman of russia's foreign ministry maria zakharova confirmed a struggle in the inner circle of the kremlin. The kremlin has lost centralized control over russian information space. And putin obviously cannot fix it.

zakharova stated that the kremlin cannot repeat Stalin's approach to creating a modern analog of the Soviet Information Bureau for centralized control over the internal information space of russia due to the struggle between the kremlin "elites".

Experts believe that zakharova's statement confirms several assessments of the institute:

• kremlin has rising tensions among putin's inner circle of officials;
• putin has largely ceded the russian information space;
• putin is unable to regain control over russia's informational sphere

The financier of the "Wagner Group, yevgeniy prigozhin, said that after the battle for Bakhmut, he would turn the group into a rigid ideological elite military organization and start a new wave of recruitment.

Recently the Wagner Group has been expanding recruiting centers throughout russia, including those focused on youth recruitment.

"It is possible that prigozhin is trying to restructure the Wagner Group into a rigid ideological elite military organization in order to give it a special role among the russian troops in Ukraine since its former role in providing exclusively tactical advantages disappears with the probable culmination of the Wagner Group around Bakhmut," experts add.