UKRAINE INVASION UPDATE 23

Institute for the Study of War ^ | Apr 15, 2022 | Press ISW

[BeauBo]

Russian authorities transferred Colonel-General Sergei Beseda, a senior official in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the head of the Fifth Service, from house arrest to the notorious Lefortovo Prison... His Fifth Service is the de-facto foreign intelligence arm of the FSB and the branch responsible for political subversion in Russia’s near abroad, including Ukraine... Bellingcat reported on April 11 that the FSB also fired or arrested around 150 officers from the Fifth Service over intelligence failures in Ukraine.

Former Russian parliamentarian Ilya Ponomarev claimed on April 11 that Russian military sources told him that longtime Putin ally Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest in Moscow. The arrests of Surkov and Beseda, as well as the FSB purges, indicate that Putin is increasingly skeptical of the advice that led to Russia’s failures in Ukraine. However, purging longtime intelligence officials with Ukraine expertise may harm the Kremlin’s ability to monitor Ukrainian leadership and to make informed military decisions. Such purges could also harm morale in the rest of the FSB, leading to generally worsened intelligence provisions.

[BeauBo]

Sounds like a lot of the Ukraine hands at the old KGB (now FSB) are under lock and key, leaving new guys to pick up the mission during busy season.

Knives out in Moscow.

[DownInFlames]

Soviet style of government.

[Grampa Dave]

We'll know our disinformation program is complete, when everything the American public believes is false. - William J. Casey, Director of CIA, 1981-1987

[Does so]

Better than WWII Soviet treatments...

[blackberry1]

The US did the same thing to Trump....it’s President.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

1. Or as Al Charlatan Sharpton would say, “Purge we much”!