The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not going smoothly. Russian President Vladimir Putin faces not only international sanctions against Russia, but also strong military resistance from Ukraine. Over the past week, high-ranking FSB officers have been interrogated and detained. Putin is suspected of looking for the culprits in his faltering military offensive.
kV
Last updated:
03-17-22, 23:48
source:
Ciba, Business Insider, NPR, Volkskrant
Read all about the war in Ukraine in our profile†
Last week, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington reported that Putin had placed executives of the Fifth Service of the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency, under house arrest. It concerns the director, Colonel General Sergei Beseda, and his deputy. The men are accused of providing poor intelligence in the run-up to the faltering Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the late 1990s, the Fifth Service was tasked with espionage in neighboring countries under the leadership of Putin, the director of the FSB. However, the FSB is actually an internal security service, and the army GRU and SVR are involved in external operations. The fifth service focused mainly on Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russian media reported the expulsion and arrest of Roman Gavrilov, the deputy commander of the National Guard. The National Guard is officially responsible for the security of Russia’s borders, arms control, the fight against terrorism and organized crime, and the protection of public order and important state institutions. The organization coexists with the Russian army and is under the direct command of Vladimir Putin. Therefore critics often refer to it as his own army.
The position of Sergei Naryshkin, head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, is also uncertain. Three weeks ago, during a meeting of the Russian Security Council, Putin suffered a lot. The man barely got out of his words.
In an interview with NPR, Russian expert Andrei Soldatov told NPR that the FSB’s foreign intelligence service was largely tasked with providing intelligence on the political situation in Ukraine, as well as developing the political opposition in Ukraine and organizing political groups that would provide support. Russian forces. “But that never happened,” Soldatov said. In an interview on YouTube with the team of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently in a Russian prison, Soldatov stated that the FSB has always provided Putin with information that satisfies him, but that “now the illusory reality is in conflict with the real one.” According to Soldatov, officials in Putin’s fifth service assured that the Russian army would be welcome in Ukraine as liberators and that a pro-Russian government could be installed soon, but they “completely failed,” he said.
Ukraine has taken drastic measures in recent years to curb Russian propaganda. For example, President Zelensky has removed TV channels carrying Kremlin propaganda from the screen, and Kyiv’s security services have placed Putin’s most important political ally in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, under house arrest last year.
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