Russia’s Freedom Legion has told the Express.co.uk that they will drag Putin from the Kremlin on the “tips of their bayonets” and burn him in the “flames of revolution”.
The Legion is one of three armed militias made up of Russian volunteers fighting in Ukraine against Putin’s army.
Along with fellow rebels in the Russia Volunteer Corp (RVC) and Siberian Battalion, they have staged a number of daring raids in the Kursk and Belgorod border regions of Russia.
The most recent was carried out on March 12, and was timed to coincide with the Russian Presidential elections three days later.
Despite Putin having seemingly tightened his grip on power, the rebels insist that his regime is doomed and will be violently overthrown sooner rather than later.
The Legion sees itself as being the “spark” to ignite the revolution that will rid Russia of its murderous tyrant.
Alexey Baranovksy, a drone operator with the Legion, told the Express: “Putin left Russian citizens no choice but to carry him out of the Kremlin on the tip of a bayonet. Well, let’s move along this path.
“How to initiate a revolution? The main thing is to start. There are a lot of dissatisfied people in Russia – the regime is supported, for the most part, by the batons of the police and the repression of the special services.
“Only armed rebels – like us – can resist them. We are the spark from which the flame of rebellion will ignite.
“Consider that our regular visits to the border areas of Russia are attempts to fan the flames. And one day this fire will flare up at full power and turn into a forest fire in which Putin will burn.”
The 42-year-old volunteer said the rebel raids were sowing panic in the Kremlin, as evidenced by Putin’s unexpected public reaction to the March attacks.
The Kremlin boss commented on the raids twice, having previously ignored the rebels’ activities, while there was also a “big commotion” in the state media.
This demonstrated clearly that the rebels had struck a vulnerable spot of Putin’s regime, according to the Legion fighter. Alexey, whose call sign is “Lutik”, confirmed the March raids had inflicted heavy losses on Putin’s army.
“Dozens of armoured vehicles were destroyed or disabled, hundreds of Putin’s soldiers were killed or wounded,” he said. “Unfortunately, we also have losses, but this is war.”
He added: “This was the largest raid of the Russian liberation forces since the beginning of the great war in 2022, all three units of Russian volunteers took part in it.
“There will be more in the future and we will be able to solve even more complex military-political problems.”
Many Russian political analysts have questioned whether the anti-Putin opposition can really topple the blood thirsty tyrant given their own internal disagreements and lack of unity.
Given the fact that Putin seemingly has consolidated his political power and would appear to be edging towards a military victory in Ukraine, some experts have suggested that the Russian opposition is fast becoming irrelevant.
Alexey however, dismissed the scepticism of critics, pointing out that Legion numbers are experiencing “explosive” growth and that there was a growing synergy among the different factions of the anti-Putin movement.
“There are at least two clusters that make up the Russian opposition,” he explained. “There’s the classic old opposition, which sits in Europe and holds various conferences and forums of varying degrees of usefulness. This is, for the most part, not opposition, but emigration, although anti-Putin-minded. And there is a new opposition – us. This is the armed resistance.
“If the old opposition supports us more effectively than now (not only politically, but also infra-structurally and with resources), then the synergy of our cooperation will become a big problem for the Kremlin regime.
“And this process is already happening – for example volunteers are actively supported by Gary Kasparov’s Free Russia Forum and Ilya Ponomarev’s Congress of People’s Deputies.”
He added the armed rebels were actively trying to create closer ties with Alexey Navalny’s widow Yulia and the former Yukos oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.