Furious Putin begins witch-hunt among inner circle

March 23, 2022

Furious Putin begins witch-hunt among inner circle and is growing wary of close allies after US and Britain received leaks of his military plans

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has started witch-hunt among his inner circle of advisors
Grew wary of close allies after US and Britain received leaks of his military plans
Leaks blamed for Ukraine’s successful targeting of top generals and elite forces
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, commander of the invasion, is under suspicion

Vladimir Putin has started a witch-hunt among his inner circle and has grown wary of close allies after the US and Britain received leaks of his military plans.

The Russian president is seeking out ‘guilty men’ behind his stalled invasion of Ukraine and is said to be ‘incandescent’ that the US and Britain have been privy to Moscow’s military tactics.

Sources said leaks, which have been passed by London and Washington to Kyiv, had been blamed as the reason Russia’s top generals and elite forces have been targeted so effectively in Ukraine.

Among those rousing suspicion is Putin’s close ally Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is in charge of the bloody military operation in Ukraine which is believed to have led to more than 10,000 troops being killed, and mass civilian deaths.

His public appearances have been significantly curtailed in the past week, while his younger daughter Ksenia, 31, was seen posing in Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow.

Vladimir Putin has started a witch-hunt among his inner circle and has grown wary of close allies, including Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (pictured together), after the US and Britain received leaks of his military plans

Among those rousing suspicion is Putin’s close ally Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, (pictured on holiday together) who is in charge of the bloody military operation in Ukraine which is believed to have led to more than 10,000 troops being killed, and mass civilian deaths

Shoigu’s public appearances have been significantly curtailed in the past week, while his younger daughter Ksenia, 31, (pictured together) was seen posing in Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow

Sources say Putin has been dismissive in private of long-time ally Alexander Bortnikov, FSB security service head, and started snapping in meetings at Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian general staff.

Bortnikov has been spoken of as a stand-in leader should Putin fall in a coup.

Another target of Putin’s fury is Igor Kostyukov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed forces, who may face imminent removal as part of a wider purge.

Earlier ahead of the invasion he publicly humiliated SVR foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin.

But Putin is reportedly more concerned with losses of military hardware – for which he has blamed Gerasimov – than more battlefield casualties.

A toll of 50,000 would be ‘nothing compared to the goals that will be achieved after the victory’, he is said to have told his commanders.

Some believe he is planning for a deal he will sell as a Ukrainian ‘surrender’ and a ‘victory parade’ in Moscow in early May.

‘He is incandescent that US and UK intelligence appear to know the Russian army’s next moves all the time, starting with predicting the invasion before he was ready to acknowledge it,’ said one source.

Another target of Putin’s fury is Igor Kostyukov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed forces, (pictured with Putin, first left) who may face imminent removal as part of a wider purge

Earlier ahead of the invasion he publicly humiliated SVR foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin

The loss of more than a a dozen generals is seen as linked to these real time leaks of his military operation movements.

Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov said military counterintelligence is probing an FSB security service department.

Russian top military officials killed during invasion

Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov
Major General Andrei Kolesnikov
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky
Colonel Nikolay Ovcharenko
Colonel Sergei Porokhyna
Colonel Sergei Sukharev
Colonel Andrei Zakharov
Colonel Konstantin Zizevsky
Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Agarkov
Lieutenant Colonel Denis Glebov
Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Safronov
Major Viktor Maksimchuk
General Magomed Tushaev
Captain Andrey Paliy
Captain Alexey Glushchak
Colonel Alexei Sharov

‘That could mean that, finally, people in Moscow started asking themselves why the US intelligence was so accurate,’ he told The New Yorker.

‘Military counterintelligence is mostly about mole-hunting, identifying the sources of leaks.

‘So it looks like now Putin is getting angry, not only with bad intelligence and the bad performance in Ukraine but also about the sourcing of the US intelligence about the invasion, and why US intelligence was so good before the invasion, and why the Americans knew so many things about what was coming.’

He also believes Putin in blaming his underlings for ‘the lack of popular support in Ukraine for the Russian troops’, as if locals were expected to cheer the arrival of the invaders.

He said Putin’s top brass are still too scared to tell him the truth.

‘You have so many people now in jail, even people from the FSB. So if you think, from the point of view of a military general, is it really safe to say something to Putin that he would not like? I think it’s a big challenge for them.’

The climate of fear means that intelligence on the scale of Ukraine’s likely resistance to Russian invaders was hidden from Putin.

But Soldatov does not expect a move by his inner circle to assassinate Putin, despite the increasing hostile treatment they face.

‘I think now Putin is almost in no danger,’ he told ZDF Heute in Germany. ‘He has two security services, who are primarily responsible for ensuring that nothing happens to Putin personally.

‘We know that he himself is a former intelligence officer, who understands the different risks. He often claims that he successfully survived from 12 to 13 assassination attempts on his life. In this sense, everything is safe for him.’

Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov (pictured) said military counterintelligence is probing an FSB security service department

Russia has unleashed conventional ballistic missiles against Ukraine (pictured, damage caused by a missile in Kyiv) amid warnings they could now be looking to use low-yield nukes

Photographer Evgeniy Maloletka stands amid rubble of an airstrike on Pryazovskyi State Technical University

Russia’s offensive has now stalled on all fronts amid reports that Ukraine has started launching counter-attacks to push Putin’s forces back

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