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He reommended reinstating a dreaded repression unit from the USSR.
A prominent Kremlin-aligned TV host has voiced rare public frustration over Russia’s drawn-out war in Ukraine.
His remarks, reported by the Ukrainian outlet Dialog.ua, have renewed debate about Moscow’s struggle to sustain domestic support for the conflict.
Mounting frustrations
During a recent broadcast of Solovyov Live, Vladimir Solovyov acknowledged that “we have not achieved results,” according to Dialog.ua’s Dec. 5, 2025 report.
He asserted that ordinary Russians were responsible for the prolonged campaign, arguing that they had failed to back the “special military operation” with the necessary enthusiasm.
He contrasted the commitment of top officials with what he described as complacency among civilians. “The Supreme Leader is at war, the government is at war, the Presidential Administration is at war, the governors are at war,” he said.
Yet, he added, many citizens appeared more preoccupied with seasonal festivities than with wartime realities.
Instead, Solovyov insisted that the main obstacles were not on the front lines but “behind the front,” pointing to a lack of national mobilisation.
Push for repression
The broadcaster went on to urge the revival of SMERSH, a Soviet counterintelligence body that operated during World War II under the direct authority of Joseph Stalin.
The unit was tasked with targeting “traitors, deserters, spies and criminal elements.”
Solovyov argued that it was necessary to reinstate SMERSH, as “nothing convinces people more than the characteristic sound of a fired shell.”
A war that drags on
Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched on February 24, 2022, is now approaching a duration longer than the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War II (1941–1945, as the USSR had signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis during the first years of WWII).
Despite the length of the conflict, Russia’s battlefield performance remains considerably weaker than the USSR’s wartime advances eight decades ago.
The comparison underscores the widening gap between Moscow’s original expectations and the persistent, grinding conflict that continues to test Russia’s political and military endurance.
Sources: Dialog.ua, open-source historical records
