Reports came in late last week that Vladimir Putin fired eight of his “top generals.” Back in the good old days, Vlad would have simply shot them but political correctness came to the Soviet Union right along with capitalism. Insiders leak that Putin is “raging” at the FSB over “failed intelligence and poor strategy.”
FSB botched the invasion
Russia’s “security service” used to be called the KGB when Vlad Putin was running it. They call it the FSB now and from things leaking from the Kremlin, they might have a “Deep State” infestation of their own, similar to the FBI here in America.
The big difference is that Putin isn’t taking it lightly. He cleaned house. The American Deep State is still firmly in charge of our Federal Bureau of Instigation.
According to Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s security council, “around” eight commanders were fired since the invasion started. Moscow is reportedly scrambling “to change strategy.”
They were supposed to go in with a “shock and awe” style blitz which never developed. It’s all the fault of the FSB Putin decided. Security service officials are rumored to be stockpiling warm clothes before they get sent to Siberia.
Putin made a fool of himself by relying on intelligence that commanders of the FSB security service handed him “suggesting that Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if attacked.” They lied. It’s not clear why.
Former British spy Philip Ingram is also of the opinion that “Putin is obviously ‘very angry‘ and is blaming his intelligence agencies.” Specifically, “He blames them for seeding him the advice that led to the poor decision-making in Ukraine.” Kind of like James Comey’s poor decision making with Hillary Clinton.
Much higher casualties
Instead of quickly surrendering as expected, the Ukraine people are putting up massive resistance. Poor FSB decision making “has led to Russia suffering much higher casualties than it expected in its attack, which has now been going on for two weeks.”
Moscow was expecting a totally different scenario. They thought “airstrikes to seize key targets during the opening days” would squash most of the defense. Instead they were met with “punishing counter-attacks.”
Unconfirmed estimates suggest that Russia has lost “up to 12,000 men” in the first two weeks of combat. “European intelligence puts it lower – between 6,000 and 9,000 – and US lower still, at up to 3,000.” Whether 3 or 12 thousand, “it is almost certainly more than Putin anticipated when he launched the attack in the hope that fighting would be over in just a few days.”
The FSB officials are scrambling to point the finger at anyone but themselves. The corruption is built into the system, they whine. “Most FSB agents are brought into the service as legacy hires based on their parents or grandparents being agents, he said, and are removed from mainstream schools to be educated in-house.” Compare that to “western security services, which tend to recruit from elite universities or colleges to ensure they get ‘the cream of the crop.‘”
With Ukrainian forces dug in tight, they’re encouraged they can hold off the Russians, who continue suffering “punishing losses on the battlefield in Ukraine.” It’s clear to all the experts that the FSB failed to “anticipate the level of resistance.” Putin is hoping that his new generals will get the message.
“They changed their leadership. They had about 8 generals removed from their posts because they did not complete the task. Now, new ones have been appointed. We clearly understand what is happening in the Russian Federation. Moreover, I can say that they are desperate.” The Russian military, meanwhile, “is changing tactics to ‘medieval‘ siege warfare that it has used in other conflicts, such as Syria.“