Russian general Alexander Lapin, dismissed from military service after setbacks in Ukraine, becomes Tatarstan deputy prime minister overseeing war-related affairs

Filed 1h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

The Path of the Goblin King

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: PMO Barbados from Bridgetown, Barbados · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Retired Colonel General Alexander Lapin, removed from Russian military command after the withdrawal from Lyman and forced into retirement in August 2025 following gaps in defenses around Kursk, has landed a new post as Tatarstan's deputy prime minister overseeing a department for “supporting participants in the special military operation.” Tatarstan leader Rustam Minnikhanov announced the new department, which Lapin will run after previously serving as his aide on military and veterans' affairs.

Lapin had reportedly been floated to chair the Defense Committee in the next State Duma, but that candidacy was not approved in Moscow. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov once called him “an incompetent shielded by top officials in the General Staff,” and The Wall Street Journal reported he bore responsibility for defensive gaps that let Ukrainian forces make gains near Kursk.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Get demoted from the battlefield and Moscow hands you a desk job managing the paperwork of the very war you helped stumble through. That's not accountability, that's a lateral move with a new title on the door. Somewhere a Russian soldier who actually held a line for months is wondering why the general who lost ground gets an office and he gets a shovel.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: The Path of the Goblin King · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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