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

Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov; (9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist, liberalism in Russia, liberal politician, and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reform ...

about the 2014–present 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 the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...

and the involvement of Russian troops in the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

. 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 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 has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

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 l ...

#How they took

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

#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, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

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

Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...

when the

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

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, hypocris ...

, 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 Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...
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) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(publication date 21 May 2015). An American

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, 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. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

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 E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

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 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-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files ...

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