Russian serviceman Alexander Lunin deletes appeal to Putin in which he threatened the president with mutiny

A video appeal by serviceman Alexander Lunin to Vladimir Putin — which drew millions of views on Instagram — has been deleted from social media, the independent Russian news outlet Verstka reported. The deletion came after Lunin was released from administrative detention.

The video, posted on June 25, showed Lunin demanding a meeting with Putin to tell the president “the whole truth” about what is happening in Russia and the army, and threatening a military mutiny.

Lunin’s Instagram now shows videos only through June 22. The address to Putin has also disappeared from his Telegram channel.

According to the analytics service TGstat, 17 posts published between June 23 and June 26 were deleted from the Telegram channel, among them a post calling on people to send him information about the mistreatment of Russian soldiers at the front.

Early on July 9, Lunin posted a new video saying he was “alive and well.”

As of the time of publication, he had not commented on the deletions.

Alexander Lunin, a serviceman from Russia’s Voronezh Region who participated in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, actively posted appeals to Vladimir Putin on social media.

After one of the appeals drew millions of views, Lunin’s home was searched. He was placed under administrative arrest for 11 days under a statute on displaying extremist or Nazi symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). What prompted the case is unknown.

The Kremlin, commenting on Lunin’s video, said it had not watched it, while also noting that the clip contained “rather strange formulations.”