{"id":340570,"date":"2026-05-25T21:31:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=340570"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:01:30","slug":"russias-anti-putin-underground-movement-vows-to-overthrow-dictator-by-force-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/russias-anti-putin-underground-movement-vows-to-overthrow-dictator-by-force-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia’s anti-Putin underground movement vows to overthrow dictator by force | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The previous banking vice chairman defected to Ukraine and took up arms against Russia (Picture: E2W)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An underground Russian resistance movement calling for the removal of Vladimir Putin has said the despot can only be overthrown by force.<\/p>\n

The group, often known as Black Spark, claims it’s constructing a clandestine anti-regime\u00a0network inside Russia made up of \u2018middle-class\u2019 professionals, business figures, anti-war activists and fighters with combat experience.<\/p>\n

The person behind the group has been revealed as Igor Volobuev, a\u00a0Kremlin-linked\u00a0banking vice-president who defected to Ukraine after Putin\u2019s invasion and took up arms against Russia.<\/p>\n

Volobuev, who works at Gazprombank, said \u2018shifts\u2019 were underway inside Russia and claimed members of Putin\u2019s elite had lost faith within the Kremlin leader. <\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone sees it. He cannot hit any goal anymore,\u2019 Volobuev said.<\/p>\n

Black Spark\u2019s manifesto openly calls for armed resistance against the Russian state. <\/p>\n

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\u2018Putin\u2019s terror killed our belief in dialogue. We realised that under a dictatorship, justice is forced to face with Molotov cocktails,\u2019 the group said.<\/p>\n

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Volobuev said the movement is \u2018truly powerful\u2019 (Picture: E2W)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The movement denounces Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine as \u2018our shame and our crime\u2019 and argues that simply removing Putin isn’t enough.<\/p>\n

\u2018The empire itself \u2014 Russia\u2019s biggest curse \u2014 must collapse,\u2019 the manifesto states.<\/p>\n

Despite its tiny social media footprint \u2014 fewer than 3,000 Telegram followers and around 1,500 on X \u2014 the organisation claims it already has influential members embedded across Russia, including inside state-linked energy giant Gazprom.<\/p>\n

Volobuev insisted Black Spark was not an FSB trap or factional Kremlin project, adding: \u2018I used to be given compelling evidence that this movement was truly powerful.<\/p>\n

\u2018I met people there whom I knew while living in Russia. Some are from the Gazprom system.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The ex-banker claimed members included engineers, IT specialists, lawyers, entrepreneurs and Russians of Ukrainian heritage who oppose Putin\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

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The group believes Putin won\u2019t leave without force (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some participants had access to \u2018various offices in Russia, including those in power.\u2019<\/p>\n

Black Spark\u2019s name itself is tied to their planned sabotage, in keeping with Volobuev. The group sees its predominant goal as destroying the oil industry, which they call Russia\u2019s \u2018lifeblood\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is thought to cooperate with the group and is hitting key oil targets almost each day.<\/p>\n

Volobuev argued Putin\u2019s war machine was exhausting Russia politically, economically and psychologically. <\/p>\n

\u2018Individuals are fed up with Putin,\u2019 he said. \u2018He\u2019s burning them in the fireplace of war.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Volobuev fled Russia in 2022 after resigning from Gazprombank, one in all the Kremlin\u2019s most significant financial institutions. <\/p>\n

Born in Ukraine\u2019s Sumy region, he later joined Ukrainian territorial defence units and has repeatedly appeared in Russian opposition media attacking Putin\u2019s rule. <\/p>\n

\u2018There isn’t any scenario where Putin simply leaves. He can only be overthrown by force.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: RAF jet carrying Defence Secretary John Healey has GPS signal jammed near Russian border<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Putin uses nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile that may evade defences<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: World War III fears mount after Russia threatens to attack more European countries<\/span><\/p>\n

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The previous banking vice chairman defected to Ukraine and took up arms against Russia (Picture: E2W) An underground Russian resistance movement calling for the removal of Vladimir Putin has said the despot can only be overthrown by force. The group, often known as Black Spark, claims it’s constructing a clandestine anti-regime\u00a0network inside Russia made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[52127,29773,3474,18524,395,17634,20803,5896,7379,813],"class_list":["post-340570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-antiputin","tag-dictator","tag-force","tag-movement","tag-news","tag-overthrow","tag-russias","tag-underground","tag-vows","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340573,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340570\/revisions\/340573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}