A Russian soldier who threatened Putin with an army mutiny racked up 10 million Instagram views. Who is he?

Russian soldier Alexander Lunin published a video address to Vladimir Putin on Instagram on June 25, threatening a military mutiny if he was not allowed to meet with the Russian president on live television to tell him “the whole truth about what is happening in our country right now.” Lunin said he recorded the video because “representatives of high-ranking officials from the Defense Ministry and security services” had met with him and decided to use him to relay a message to the president. He claimed they approached him because Putin had allegedly seen an earlier address he had recorded in June. In the new video, he said thousands of soldiers were being held in pits and tortured “for refusing to carry out stupid, suicidal orders” and for refusing to hand over money to their commanders. Lunin warned that if he was not granted a meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on live television, “the consequences will be very serious” and “the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin.” In less than a day, the video was viewed nearly 11 million times. Here is what is known about Alexander Lunin.

• Alexander Lunin is a junior sergeant in the Russian Armed Forces from the Voronezh region who took part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Meduza and Mediazona learned from leaked data that Lunin served in the 150th Motorized Rifle Division, part of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, and was wounded. He is 39 years old; leaked records show he was born on May 25, 1987. He previously went by the surname Pustovalov, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo found, and changed it to Lunin in 2023.
• Lunin has said he has been involved in various combat operations since the age of 19 and served in several conflict zones, the Telegram channel Ne zhdi khoroshiye novosti reported in January. He said he sustained wounds and concussions and has serious health problems, including psychological ones.
• Lunin fought in the war against Ukraine as a member of the Sudoplatov volunteer battalion, which he joined in December 2022 — from the moment the unit was formed by the Russia-appointed authorities of occupied Melitopol. He began as a rifleman, rose to commander of a reconnaissance section, and eventually headed a reconnaissance platoon. During his service, he said, he trained as a mortar operator and artillerist and spent the entire duration of his contract on the Kursk front line, where he sustained a concussion.
• Lunin said he is not fighting because he was “kicked out” of the Bars detachment in 2025 after posting a video in which he described how two fighters were sent on a mission without assault rifles. He is also known to have worked at the Sudoplatov Center for Technical Development and Services in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region. According to Lunin, his pension as a combat veteran amounts to 4,500 rubles.
• Lunin began running his own channel on various platforms at the start of 2026. Since March, more than 700 videos have appeared on his Instagram. He said acquaintances who are still fighting send him messages and videos from the front — “there is terrible footage there” — and that he wants to meet with Putin to show him the recordings.