A clandestine group from Russia, demanding the overthrow of Vladimir Putin, asserts that the Kremlin’s dictator can no longer be removed through protests or negotiations, but only by force.
The movement, named “Black Spark”, claims that it is secretly building an anti-regime network within Russia, composed of businessmen, middle-class professionals, anti-war activists, and former combatants.
Behind the organization is said to be Igor Volobuev, former vice president of Gazprombank — one of the most important financial institutions close to the Kremlin — who fled to Ukraine after the Russian invasion and joined the Ukrainian forces.
Volobuev asserts that within Russia, increasingly visible cracks have begun to appear, and that even members of the Russian elite have lost confidence in Putin.
“Everyone sees this. Putin is no longer capable of hitting any target,” asserts the former banker.
“Putin’s terror has killed our faith in dialogue”
The manifesto of the group openly speaks about armed resistance against the Russian state.
“Putin’s terror has killed our belief in dialogue. We understood that, in a dictatorship, justice is forced to stand alongside Molotov cocktails”, the organization conveys.
The members of “Black Spark” condemn the invasion of Ukraine and call it “our shame and crime”. At the same time, the group says that simply removing Putin would not be enough.
“The Empire itself — Russia’s greatest curse — must fall”, the document states.
“People from the Gazprom system”
Although the organization has a modest presence on social networks — a few thousand followers on Telegram and X — its leaders claim to have members infiltrated into key institutions of Russia, including the energy giant Gazprom.
Volobuev insists that the movement is not a trap organized by the Russian secret services or a struggle between factions within the Kremlin.
“We have received convincing evidence that this movement is truly powerful. I have met people whom I knew from the time I lived in Russia. Some even come from the Gazprom system,” he says.
According to the former banker, the group includes engineers, IT specialists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and Russians of Ukrainian origin who oppose the war.
Some of them would even have access to “structures of power”.
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