Serviceman Alexander Lunin has deleted from social media a video address to Vladimir Putin in which he demanded a personal meeting and threatened the president with a military mutiny. The outlet Verstka noted that the video disappeared shortly after Lunin was released from administrative arrest.
The recording in question was published on June 25. In it, Lunin said he wanted to tell Putin “the whole truth” about what was happening in Russia and in the army. At the time of publication, only videos posted up to June 22 remained available on his Instagram account.
The appeal to Putin also vanished from Lunin’s Telegram channel. According to the TGstat service, 17 posts published between June 23 and June 26 were deleted from the channel. Among them was a post urging people to send him information about cruel treatment of Russian servicemen at the front.
Early on the morning of July 9, Lunin posted a new video saying that he was “alive and well.” By the time the news report was published, he had not explained why the earlier posts were removed.
Lunin, who is from the Voronezh region, took part in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and had been actively posting addresses to the Russian president on social media. After one of those videos drew millions of views, his home was searched.
Lunin was then placed under administrative arrest for 11 days under the article on displaying extremist or Nazi symbols, Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code. What specifically prompted the case was not disclosed.
Commenting on Lunin’s video, the Kremlin said it had not watched it, but added that it contained “rather strange wording.”