Russia is reportedly partially stalled in its war against Ukraine by Ukrainian resistance and poor logistical support. Russia denies it, but Russian President Putin allegedly had his FSB chief and his deputy arrested. He might blame them for the poor intel and the slow progress through Ukraine. The Director of the Russian National Guard was also fired, possibly for information leaking to the media.
THE STORY
Colonel-General Sergei Beseda, the head of the Fifth Service of the FSB intelligence service, and Beseda’s deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh, were being held under house arrest, according to a report by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) non-partisan think tank.
The Fifth Service was responsible for providing Russian President Vladimir Putin with intelligence about Ukraine leading up to the war.
Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled Russian human rights activist, confirmed the arrest to The Times as well, adding that FSB officers had searched over 20 addresses around Moscow of fellow FSB officers suspected of being in contact with journalists.
“The formal basis for conducting these searches is the accusation of the embezzlement of funds earmarked for subversive activities in Ukraine,” said Osechkin to the Times. “The real reason is unreliable, incomplete and partially false information about the political situation in Ukraine.”
The Deputy Director of the National Guard of the Russian Federation Roman Gavrilov was also fired. This was reported to URA.RU by sources familiar with the situation, specifying that his dismissal was personally initiated by the director of the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation Viktor Zolotov.
The reasons are unknown but it could be over these leaks to journalists.
It is also noted that Gavrilov was an employee of the FSO. “Zolotov got him a job. Now, he himself initiated the dismissal, ”added the source.
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The reason for the detention is unclear: per one source he was detained by FSB’s military counter-intelligence department over “leaks of military info that led to loss of life”, while two others say it was “wasteful squandering of fuel”, ahem. pic.twitter.com/UynQuWv8sr
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 17, 2022
While it’s hard to guess what exactly the purge/reshuffling at the top of the siloviks will result in, one thing is clear: it’s doubtless that Putin recognizes the deep s**t this operation is in. I.e. it’s so bad that he changes horses in midstream – a big no-no during war.
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 17, 2022
..and now Russian media report he’s been fired. https://t.co/JnNGbqCE0q
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 17, 2022
Former US Intel Agent Says Putin’s Angry
“It means that Putin is angry and recognized that he was not provided with accurate intelligence,” Rebekah Koffler, a former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency agent and author of “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America”, told Fox News Digital about the significance of the report.
Koffler believes that Putin has assessed that his inability to capture control of Ukraine in a swift manner has to do with “poor intelligence” that has contributed to two major miscalculations.
Those two missteps, Koffler says, are the failure to anticipate how fiercely Ukrainians would fight for their homeland and the role technology would play in bringing the images of destruction to households across the world.
Whatever the case, Putin can’t stop now without a win or he’s finished.
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