Putin fails to deny presence of DPRK soldiers in Russia and fails at BRICS summit – ISW

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin failed to deny the presence of the North Korean military in Russia amid official reports from Ukraine and the West that the first DPRK soldiers are already in the Kursk region. At the same time, he failed in his attempt to present the BRICS summit in Kazan as evidence of broad international support for his country.

This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The report describes how the Kremlin dictator spoke about the involvement of foreign troops in hostilities and what instructions the Kremlin gave to its propagandists regarding the coverage of the summit.

DPRK troops are already in Russia

The Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) reported that the first units of the North Korean military arrived in the Kursk region on October 23. They were trained at the Baranovsky military training ground in Ussuriysk, Primorsky Krai, Donguz in Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, Ekaterinoslavsky in Yekaterinsk, Amur Oblast, at the 248th military training ground in Knyazy-Volkonsky, Khabarovsk Oblast, and 249th in Primorsky Krai.

The Russian military spent several weeks coordinating their actions with North Korean units. It is noted that the DPRK has deployed about 12,000 of its military personnel to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals. Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov is responsible for overseeing the training and adaptation of North Korean soldiers. According to the reported data, the Russian army provides ammunition and other personal equipment to North Korean personnel.

When asked at a press conference after the BRICS summit in Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan), Putin was asked about the recently released South Korean satellite images showing DPRK troops in Russia, he ironically replied that "photos are a serious thing" and they "reflect something."

"Putin repeated the article on mutual defense in the Russian-North Korean agreement on strategic partnership with North Korea, announced in June 2024 and officially ratified by the State Duma," ISW said in a report.

Putin's failure at the BRICS summit

Against this backdrop, the Kremlin failed to present the BRICS summit as evidence of broad international support for Russia, especially to its domestic audience.

On October 24, the Russian opposition outlet Meduza wrote that it had reviewed a government handbook for state-owned Russian media and propagandists with instructions on how to cover the event in Kazan. The document identifies three themes, which are summarized as follows: Putin is the "unofficial leader of the world majority," Western elites are "panicking," and the West is generally "dominated by anxiety."

The Kremlin ordered the media to report that the BRICS summit "attracted the attention of the whole world" and proves that "attempts to isolate" Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine "failed." The propagandists should also tell how Putin is establishing "strategic ties that are not limited to one direction," unlike the West's supposed "high-speed alliances" (note that NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary this year).

RosMedia has recently published articles that cover many of these topics, sometimes even word for word, as written in the manual. And on the Russian social network VKontakte, Kremlin robots left more than 10,000 comments about the BRICS summit in two days. They promoted the idea that Russia is "not in international isolation," that the organization's influence is growing, that anti-Russian sanctions are "decreasing in importance," and that the Russian Armed Forces are "making progress" in Ukraine.

At the same time, a Russian insider source claimed that people connected to the Putin administration have been spreading the theme that the BRICS countries mostly do not support Russia's position on its war against Ukraine, forcing the Kremlin to push the issue to the back burner in order to achieve some kind of "serious international unification." According to him, numerous meetings during the summit discussed "peace proposals" by China and Brazil that favor Russia, but these discussions "ultimately led to nothing."

"The adoption of the Kazan Declaration on the second day of the BRICS summit also demonstrated that Russia has not secured international support and has not created the alternative security structure desired by the Kremlin," ISW concluded.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, the Financial Times told how Putin plans to use soldiers from the DPRK in combat operations. Analysts are convinced that North Korean forces will not change the course of the war, but will create additional problems for Ukraine on the battlefield.

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