Blame within Russia’s spy and defence agencies: Bickering spooks at war over disastrous Ukraine invasion and arrest of senior intelligence officer, US officials claim
- A blame game has started between the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense
- They are the two departments responsible for the Ukraine invasion preparations
- Comes after Vladimir Putin reportedly arrested head of the FSB's foreign service
Russia’s spy and defence agencies have started bickering over the disastrous Ukraine invasion, US officials have claimed.
A blame game has commenced between the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Ministry of Defense, the two departments of the government responsible for the Ukraine invasion preparations.
The US officials added that it was possible that the agencies told Putin what he wanted to hear due to his deeply held beliefs regarding Ukraine.
It comes after Vladimir Putin placed the head of the FSB's foreign service and his deputy under house arrest after blaming them for intelligence failings that saw his army handed a series of embarrassing defeats in Ukraine.
Jeffrey Edmonds, a former CIA and National Security Council official, told The Wall Street Journal: 'It is hard to imagine some senior intelligence person talking with Putin and not telling Putin what he wants to hear, especially if it is a belief that is deeply held, like Putin’s beliefs about Ukraine.'
When it comes to this guy, it’s also clear that the culture of "someone is at fault and is going to pay" is clearly still operative,' added Jeffrey, a specialist on the region.
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, the US deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia from 2015-2018, added that Putin is seeking individuals to 'scapegoat and pass the blame' to and thinks 'he’s in a much more precarious position now'.
Sergey Orestovich Beseda (pictured), head of the FSB's foreign service, was reportedly placed under house arrest after the intelligence service took the blame for the war's progress
Putin reportedly blames his intelligence agencies for misleading him over the extent of Ukraine's resistance to Russian attack
Last week, Andrey Soldatov, a respected author on the Russian secret services, said sources inside the FSB told him that Sergey Beseda, 68, head of the agency's foreign service, had been placed under arrest on Putin's orders.
Also arrested was Anatoly Bolyukh, Beseda's deputy, according to Soldatov, who said Putin is 'truly unhappy' with the agency - which he ran before becoming president.
Putin is said to blame the agency for intelligence which assured him ahead of the invasion that Russian forces would face only token resistance from the Ukrainian army and that Ukrainians themselves were eager to be rid of their leaders.
Among the reasons for the repressions are the embezzlement of funds allocated for subversive and undercover work in Ukraine, as well as deliberately false information about the political situation in Ukraine.
Anatoly Bolyukh, deputy head of the 5th Service of the Federal Security Service and head of the operational information department, was also reportedly arrested
The FSB security service allegedly handed him intelligence suggesting that Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if attacked.
In fact, the Russian armed forces have faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers that has battled them to a standstill, inflicted heavy losses, and forced Putin's commanders to resort to brutal siege warfare that has so far yielded few results.
Soldatov previously told The Times that most FSB agents are brought into the service as legacy hires based on their parents or grandparents being agents and are removed from mainstream schools to be educated in-house.
This is unlike western security services, which tend to recruit from elite universities or colleges to ensure they get 'the cream of the crop'.
Alternatively, he said, the organisation did gather good intelligence - but was simply too afraid to tell Putin the truth, instead doctoring their reports to appease him.
Source of above: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10630935/Russias-spy-defence-agencies-start-arguing-blame-disastrous-Ukraine-invasion.html
Putin's convoy of corpses: Trains are being loaded with dead Russian soldiers in the dead of night after their deaths in Ukraine to hide true death toll, claim Belarus locals who say they have seen 2,500 bodies in two weeks
- Corpses of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are being moved from Belarus back to Russia in the dead of night
- Video shows military ambulances driving through the Belarusian city of Homel in early March
- Employees at the region’s clinical hospital claim more than 2,500 bodies have already been shipped back
- Ukraine’s military says that more than 14,000 Kremlin troops have been killed since the Russian invasion
The corpses of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are being moved from Belarus back to Russia by train and planes in the dead of night to avoid attracting attention, it has emerged.
Video posted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty shows military ambulances driving through the Belarusian city of Homel in early March, with employees at the region’s clinical hospital claiming more than 2,500 bodies have already been shipped back to Russia as of March 13.
Ukraine’s military says that more than 14,000 Kremlin troops have been killed since the Russian invasion on February 24, while one US intelligence estimate has put the number at around 7,000. Moscow’s Defence Ministry says that less than 500 soldiers have been killed.
Now Belarusian medical staff in Homel, in southeastern Belarus, have described ‘overflowing’ morgues, with one resident of the city Mazyr claiming: ‘Passengers at the Mazyr train station were shocked by the number of corpses being loaded on the train. After people started shooting video, the military caught them and ordered them to remove it.’
A doctor at Mazyr’s main city hospital warned: ‘There are not enough surgeons. Earlier, the corpses were transported by ambulances and loaded on Russian trains. After someone made a video about it and it went on the Internet, the bodies were loaded at night so as not to attract attention.’
Officials at Hospital No4 in Homel are alleged to have begun discharging current patients on March 1 because of the sheer number of wounded Russian soldiers to treat.
One resident who was treated in the hospital said: ‘There are so many wounded Russians there – it’s just a horror. Terribly disfigured. It is impossible to listen to their moans throughout the whole hospital.’
Another doctor described growing concern among locals that there could be a shortage of everyday medication and of ‘problems with anti-tetanus drugs’. Tetanus is a common ailment afflicting soldiers suffering from shrapnel and bullet wounds.
Homel borders Russia to the east and Ukraine to the south. The city of Homel is Belarus’ largest after Minsk, and a major hub for trade and transport. The country’s despot Alexander Lukashenko supports Putin’s war and allowed a deployment of major Russian military units in the country. An unknown number of Russian troops moved south towards Ukraine’s capital Kyiv from Homel.
source of above: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10630593/Ukraine-war-Buses-carrying-corpses-Russian-soldiers-filmed-heading-Belarus.html
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