Mikhail Khodaryonok, 68, a military analyst and retired colonel stole the show this week by circumventing Russian state television’s censorship and criticizing the invasion of Ukraine on air.
“Frankly speaking, the situation is going to get worse for us,” the former soldier told the talk show “60 Minutes,” hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, one of the country’s most pro-government journalists.
The reserve colonel also said that Russia should “see the truth” and that the country’s main shortcoming is its “total geopolitical isolation”.
“Practically the whole world is against us and we need to get out of this situation,” Khodaryonok said. Said.
The statements came amid a wave of arrests by critics of the conflict. According to a survey for Radio Free Europeo by the Russian group ‘Agora’, which provides legal aid to victims of human rights abuses, about 32 people have already been prosecuted or arrested for demonstrating against the war.
OVD-Info, a collective that monitors repression in the country, cites more than forty prisoners.
Who is Khodaryonok?
Born in Tallinn, then the capital of Soviet Estonia, and graduating from the Military Engineering College in Minsk, now the capital of Belarus, Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodaryonok joined the Soviet Air Defense Forces in 1971.
Between 1977 and 1980 he commanded the combat control division of the radio-technical units. Then he became the commander of the air defense missile division, and then a senior officer in the Soviet Air Defense Forces.
He was the main operations director of the Russian Armed Forces from 1992 until his retirement as a colonel in the 2000s.
He is a soldier full of ornaments. He received the medal for impeccable service, 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes, and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, presented to him in 2020 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
famous military analyst
The rationale for the award was “the foundations for the development of national journalism, high professionalism and many years of productive work”.
This is because after going to the reserve, Khodaryonok began working as a military journalist and wrote articles for Russian publications such as the Military Industrial Mail and Aerospace Defense magazine.
He currently works as a military observer for the Gazeta.Ru broadcast and the Vesti FM radio station. He has a painting called “A Hora do Militarista” in the program “Das Três aos Cinco”.
This is not the first time that Khodaryonok has criticized the Putin government’s role in the Ukraine war.
Three weeks before the start of the conflict, the colonel published an article explaining that the country’s armed forces could not defeat the Ukrainians in a matter of hours – contrary to what several Russian politicians say.
He also noted that the Russian army cannot handle the Western allies’ supplies and arms supply to Ukraine, and cannot carry out high-precision strikes to overthrow the neighboring country’s government.
He concluded by stating that “Russian experts should forget about their hateful fantasies.”
source: Noticias
