Putin creates new agency to impose martial law amidst Ukraine pressure

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a new department to help enforce martial law, if required, according to reports.

The Main Directorate of Rapid Response will coordinate the Interior Ministry’s resources and agents if a state of emergency or counter-terrorism operation is declared in Russia, reports Newsweek, citing state-owned news agency TASS.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the restructuring was due to "requirements of the times," but did not elaborate.

"Everything is quite obvious," Peskov said, according to Interfax. "Any additional explanations are hardly needed here."

But tens of thousands of Russia’s own people fled in early March after Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine began, fueled by increasingly severe measures imposed by the Kremlin to crush dissent – and rumors they could escalate into martial law.

At the time, Peskov dismissed any talk of martial law as a “hoax.”

But experts say Putin’s recent unpredictable behavior may lead him to martial law if Russia does not find more success in the Ukraine war.

In a Senate hearing last month, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines said Putin could turn to “more drastic means” at home and abroad, including imposing martial law, reorienting industrial productions and even “potentially escalatory military actions” to free up resources to pursue his goals.

“There is nothing more convenient than martial law for a dictatorship,” wrote Alexander Nevzorov, a Russian dissident who fled after speaking out against the war.

“It allows you to do whatever you want with the population and its property.”

It is possible that martial law could be imposed on Ukrainian territories seized by the Russian army, rather than the entire country, reports The Times of London.