The release of the Azov leadership is an even bigger blow to Russian nationalists than the Kharkiv retreat. The retreat could be explained by the mistakes of the military, while the release of the Azov command undermines the very idea of "denazification". 1/
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Russian propaganda has been demonising the Azov regiment for the last eight years, telling stories about how they "kill Russian children of Donbas". They have become something like the SS and have been opposed to ordinary Ukrainian soldiers "who are just like us". 2/
One of the main aims of denazification was the elimination of Azov, and the fall of Mariupol and their capture was the main triumph of the war to date. Their trial and execution were supposed to be the culmination of the "liberation" of Ukraine. 3/
And then suddenly, when the cages for the tribunal were ready, they are swapped for the father of Putin's goddaughter. For Russian nationalists, this is akin to the USSR capturing General Rommel along with an SS division in 1942 and swapping them for Stalin's son. 4/
With the Kharkiv defeat, Putin has already turned a large part of Russian nationalists against himself, but today, by his betrayal, he has practically become their enemy number one making it clear to everyone that the idea of "denazifying Ukraine" was just a bluff. 5/
And as if that wasn't enough, on the same day, by announcing the mobilisation, Putin also destroyed Russia's main social contract of the last 30 years - you let us get rich and we stay out of your private life. 6/
This will soon anger not only politicised activists but a huge apolitical part of the population, something completely unprecedented. It's still too early but I'm pretty sure future historians will mark 21.09.22 as one of the key days in the fall of Putin's Russia. 7/7
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