The message has clearly reached the Kremlin: Alexander Lunin, former Russian commander from the war against Ukraine, wants a meeting with Vladimir Putin and threatens to turn "weapons against the Kremlin". Is a rebellion against Moscow brewing?
The former commander of the reconnaissance detachment of the volunteer battalion “Sudoplatov“ Alexander Lunin, who requested a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin, said that he had received an invitation to visit Moscow. But Lunin claims that he will not meet with the president, but with Vitaly Borodin, whom the media associate with pro-Kremlin activity and numerous denunciations against public and cultural figures. Earlier, Lunin recorded an address to Putin, in which he stated that Russian servicemen were being subjected to torture and violence, and requested an "audience with the president". In one day, the clip was viewed 11 million times.
The address to Putin
The Kremlin reacted to Lunin's video address. The president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov found the military man's formulations "quite strange."
Lunin claims that people came to him, posing as employees of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who asked him to convey information to the president about what was happening in the army. In his address, he said that Russian servicemen were being subjected to torture and violence for refusing to carry out "suicide orders" at the front and hand over their money to their commanders. He also claims that many soldiers are being held in "underground prisons," and some of them are reported missing after being punished. Lunin warned that if he does not get the opportunity to meet with the president, "the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin."
A representative of the Voronezh region government tried to meet with Alexander Lunin and make a proposal on how to resolve the former commander's financial problems, but the conversation did not take place because the veteran insisted on a meeting with Putin.
Invitation to Moscow
Lunin later recorded a new video in which he denied calling for a military mutiny. "If someone was organizing a mutiny, they would have done it secretly. They turned to me - and that worked. I need an audience with the president," he said. According to Lunin, he was provided with information and shown videos of torture of Russian servicemen.
In addition, Lunin announced that he was collecting evidence of alleged crimes against Russian servicemen. He asked to be sent photos and videos, indicating the date, place, unit number, data on the victims and witnesses, as well as a detailed description of what happened. Lunin seems to intend to collect an array of evidence in order to subsequently present it to the Russian leadership.
In comments and videos on the Internet, there are already warnings to Lunin to be careful not to "become like Prigozhin."
Who is Alexander Lunin?
The junior sergeant from the Voronezh region participated in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the publications “Medusa“ and “Mediazona“ he fought in the 150th Motorized Rifle Division and was wounded. Lunin is 39 years old and previously bore another surname - Pustovalov, which he changed in 2023, according to a publication on the Telegram channel "Agency". In December of the same year, Lunin was removed from the list of extremists compiled by "Rosfinmonitoring" (this is the financial service that fights money laundering - ed.), where he had been listed since June 2021.
Again, according to information from "Agency", which managed to contact Lunin, he served in the volunteer battalion "Sudoplatov" - first as a squad commander, and then as a reconnaissance platoon in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region. In 2025, Lunin was "expelled" from the volunteer detachment "BARS" (Combat Army Reserve of the country - ed.), after he told in a video how two fighters were sent on a mission unarmed. According to Lunin, his pension as a war veteran amounts to 4,500 rubles (a little over 50 euros at the current exchange rate of the ruble - ed.).
A sensible move or madness?
Alexander Lunin began publishing his first videos in March 2026. He currently has 729 videos and over 200,000 followers. At first, his publications were not dedicated to the army or the war, but gradually criticism of the Russian authorities became more frequent. In one of them, he shares how, since childhood, he was taught that "war is a good thing, a romance," but today he thinks differently. In other videos, the former military man mocks official reports about the state of the country. "We have growth in everything - in the economy, in the population. Only negative," he adds.
Lunin also criticizes the ongoing war against Ukraine and the socio-economic problems in Russia. "No matter how long this conflict lasts, the guys will soon return and face the lawlessness that you are creating," he says, referring to the increase in utility bills.
There are also several clips shot in a toilet: against the background of a toilet bowl, Lunin has edited footage of speeches by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko.
Reactions to Lunin's address
Many Z-bloggers who regularly criticize the Russian authorities ignored Lunin's video address, claims Ivan Filippov, author of the Telegram channel "Nothing New on the ZzzzzWestern Front." But tens of thousands of people reacted in the comments under Lunin's video, and according to the former head of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBC), Leonid Volkov, "the measurement of sentiment in the Z-community is very worrying for Putin", he wrote on Telegram.
Political analyst Fyodor Krasheninnikov suggests that Lunin fell victim to scammers who convinced him to record an address to Putin. According to him, someone is trying to present the war veteran as the new leader of the protest among those involved in the war.
Former FBK director Ivan Zhdanov also linked the wide response to Lunin's address to growing public discontent in Russia. "I think August will be hot for Putin," he wrote. As examples, Zhdanov points to the resistance against conscripts in the Penza region, the protest of relatives of servicemen in the Sverdlovsk region, and the mass unrest surrounding the fuel crisis in Russia.