(UnitedVoice.com) – Russian President Vladimir Putin spent months building up troops in strategic positions along the Ukrainian border before he invaded the country. When he finally ordered them to move in, the overall feeling in the media was that it would be a quick war — or, it seemed Putin thought it would be. That was not the case and now, it looks like the Russian president is cleaning house.
Putin reportedly expelled more than 150 Federal Security Bureau (FSB) agents in the wake of the war. The intelligence agency is the successor of the KGB, which Putin used to work for in his youth. Some of the spies were arrested, including the former head of the Fifth Service, Sergei Beseda.
Beseda was originally put on house arrest but was then moved to FSB-run Lefortovo prison. In an op-ed for The Moscow Times, Journalist Andrei Soldatov said the most likely explanation for Beseda’s incarceration was that the Kremlin probably thinks he tipped off the CIA to Russia’s plans.
Why is a Russian Intelligence General in Moscow Lefortovo Prison? My take on recent developments in @MoscowTimes https://t.co/IvxONxWrJl
— Andrei Soldatov (@AndreiSoldatov) April 11, 2022
Soldatov told the London Times that Putin is undoubtedly looking for people to blame for the intelligence failures of the war. Bad intelligence has been blamed for many of the Russian president’s failures in Ukraine. It’s unlikely Putin is done punishing those he believes are at fault for the mistakes; the question is: What will he do next?
Copyright 2022, UnitedVoice.com
