Moscow's Novaya Gazeta explained why Bezler was removed

Moscow – Kyiv, November 10 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – The resignation of Igor Bezler (aka Bes), the leader of the Horlivka militants and a GRU lieutenant colonel in Donetsk until 2002, was called a "political undermining" of Kyiv: he positioned himself as an "independent leader capable of negotiating," with whom negotiations were conducted directly by Kolomoisky's deputies, Filatov and Korban. This was reported by Novaya Gazeta , citing local sources . Furthermore, Bezler was an opponent of Zakharchenko, the newspaper writes.

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The territory controlled by Bezler in the DPR was more than once called the “Gorlovka-Makeevka People’s Republic.” In Gorlovka, where the “retired” GRU lieutenant colonel lived for 12 years, he is also known as the main authority, who at one time brought the Gorlovka-Enakievo group under his control, the newspaper writes. Already at the very beginning of the conflict in the southeast, Bes positioned himself as a “negotiable independent leader,” the publication recalls.

Moscow political strategists contributed to the creation of this image, as Novaya Gazeta was told in Donetsk. Kolomoisky’s deputies, Filatov and Korban, negotiated directly with Bes. Bes himself acted as an intermediary in the exchange of prisoners and hostages between the Ukrainian side and the leaders of other independent groups within the DPR and LPR.

Officially, representatives of the separatists say that Igor Bezler received an honorable resignation, which he himself asked for. In behind-the-scenes conversations, it is reported that Bes’s resignation was pushed through in the Kremlin by supporters of ending the war.

With all this, Bes has earned the exact opposite reputation inside Ukraine - the reputation of an opponent of the current “prime minister of the republic” Zakharchenko and a supporter of negotiations with Kiev.

Now, the publication states, the circle of authoritative conditionally independent leaders of the DPR/LPR with the resignation of Bezler has been reduced to two - the leaders of the Vostok and Ghost battalions, Alexander Khodakovsky and Alexei Mozgovoy.