Finger-Putin time: Vlad arrests FSB chiefs in fallout from Ukraine chaos

[BeyondGeography]

Link to tweet

A Russian spy chief is said to have been placed under house arrest in a sign that President Putin is seeking to blame the security services for the stalled invasion of Ukraine.

Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence branch, was arrested with Anatoly Bolyukh, his deputy, according to a leading expert on the Russian security services.

Andrei Soldatov, who is co-founder and editor of Agentura, an investigative website that monitors the FSB and other agencies, said that sources from within FSB had confirmed the detention of both men.

“The formal basis for conducting these searches is the accusation of the embezzlement of funds earmarked for subversive activities in Ukraine,” Osechkin said. “The real reason is unreliable, incomplete and partially false information about the political situation in Ukraine.”

The spy chief’s defenestration attests to Putin’s growing fury towards the intelligence services, which he believes provided false information over the situation in Ukraine, Soldatov said. “Putin has finally understood that he was misled,” Soldatov told The Times.

…However, he added: “The problem is that it is too risky for superiors to tell Putin what he doesn’t want to hear, so they tailor their information. The tailoring probably takes place somewhere between the rank of colonel and general in the FSB. We can’t rule out the fact that the intelligence they gathered on the ground was in fact very good.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/51656b28-a167-11ec-b38e-10b333e9179b?shareToken=bfd2f8e3d1a4d48105f47fc2594cf6d5

[multigraincracker]

1. ALWAYS blame the the the next guy below you.

Like TFG, pretty soon you run out of good help.

[FreepFryer]

2. Excellent use of "defenestration" in this context, reader is unsure if it's literal (yet).

[Irish_Dem]

5. I know, it was a clever use of the word.

This guy needs to stay away from windows.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Well, enough unsure to be unsettling momentarily, so downgrade from Ex to VGood. . . . nt

[Sherman A1]

3. My understanding is that the was a preemptive effort by Putin

As the FSB might pose a threat directly to his well-being if they would move against him.

There is certainly intrigue in the court.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Could easily be a goal along with punishment for failure. But Putin believed him

Since Putin bought an assessment that seemed flawed even from here says something about Putin.

Either Putin is not so bright or he doesn't acknowledge that he has made his environment toxic to competency and reality-based approaches.

It's on him. He's been President, officially and unofficially, for 22 years.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Putin fired 8 generals, they may go to jail as well?

Looks like Putin is melting down a bit.

[Ilsa]

26. I guess I missed that. Was it very recently? nt

[Irish_Dem]

32. Yes he fired them yesterday. Link below

https://nypost.com/2022/03/10/fuming-putin-fires-generals-over-ukraine-invasion-losses/

[Ilsa]

34. Thank you! I shared that article. nt

[Irish_Dem]

35. YW

[speak easy]

6. No mistakes!

[gordianot]

7. It has been debated for some time. If Russian leaders die of natural causes.

This speculation goes back to the time of the Czars and hit a zenith in the Communist era.. The problem with authoritarians what comes next is worse than before. Those obscenely long tables serve a purpose.

[Farmer-Rick]

29. There's a reason why arsenic was called inheritance powder.

Especially during the the 17th and 18th centuries.

Those dictatorial kings got poisoned regularly by their own children. Until a test was developed. And tasters weren't a protection against it because arsenic poisoning can take months. So a taster could eat it and be fine but the king who had it built up in his body could die from it. And the kings got to eat something.

That's why Machiavelli instructed kings that they should not be hated but feared. But the best case is that they are loved and feared. But being hated is very dangerous and leads to attempted assinations.

Is Shorty Putin hated?

[sop]

8. A paranoid Stalin concocted his Doctor's Plot during the last months of his life, now Putin will

persecute his generals as he circles the drain.

[Joinfortmill]

9. These are also the people most likely to remove the murdering b*stard.

[Klondike Kat]

10. Misled?

Misled my arse! If he was misled it's because he wanted to be misled.

[gab13by13]

13. Yeah, bwahaha,

Putin was misled by Donald Trump. Trump told Putin that NATO was weak and that president Biden was weak. The generals may have told Putin that his army was the best, 2 or 3 days maximum to take Kyiv.

[AllyCat]

18. I figured Putin was always eavesdropping on 45 after

he let the Russians in for a meet and greet. But listening in, I don’t know how anyone could make sense of anything he said.

[msfiddlestix]

27. exactly. surely Lavrov et al bugged the Oval Office at least

Trumps open door welcome mat to the Oval Office was a most excellent opportunity Putin could have ever hoped to achieve in terms of intelligence. Well not that any intelligence existed within the skull of that psychopathic con artist Putin helped to install, but there it was.

When Biden entered the Oval Office, I could only pray that our team swept if not tore out the dry wall in that office and parameters.

[3Hotdogs]

11. Sooner or later, one or several of the replacements will be worried about if they are next.

Or maybe the replacements' replacements will.

"Hey, what happened to ol' Sergey? I saw him here, just last week. Do ya suppose we might be next? Maybe do something about it?"

[gab13by13]

21. Say the magic word and win a trip to Siberia.

3Hotdogs, what was that contestants won when they said the magic word on Groucho, I can't remember.

[2naSalit]

28. Wasn't it...

Something like $50?

[3Hotdogs]

33. $50.00. Wasn't there some guy, Nikki K, they got fed up with hm, bought him a cabin on some lake

and told him to fuck off. The comedy act of banging his shoe on the table was funny at first, but there was no buildup to the routine after that.

[SunSeeker]

12. Trump hated his intelligence services as well. Coincidence? nt

[gab13by13]

14. Staggering similarities between Putin and Trump.

God help us if he gets reelected, he wants to make America just like Russia, and so does the Putin Party. (GQP)

[Beastly Boy]

15. I doubt that Ukraine is the real reason for the purge. Ukraine is an excuse.

I believe that Putin is consolidating his grip on power. Like many aging dictators before him, he perceives any slightest hint of descent, whether imagined or real, as a threat to him personally. And since he has long identified his person with his country, he regards any perceived affront to himself as an existential threat to Russia. A completely expected behavior of an aging and increasingly paranoid dictator.

Since Putin himself is fully complicit in any embezzlement of government funds, these accusations don't hold water.

[musclecar6]

24. Yes

Of course this paranoid asshole is now starting to act as expected. If he accidentally fell out of a 10 story building there would be worldwide dancing in the streets, including Russia.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Pro Tip: Stay below the fourth floor of a building, Sergey!

[Historic NY]

17. Putin didn't get his cut.

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Stalin thought he had the same problem, but he just shot them.

[yardwork]

23. Here come the purges.

[Lonestarblue]

25. Let's hope this move engenders enough anger in the FSB to do something about Putin.

They’re most likely to be the only ones who can get close enough unless his cook and personal guards can be bribed. Putin is leading Russia down a dark path. Western sanctions should not be removed until he is gone.

[gulliver]

30. Trump just fired his non-yes-people, but it's the same idea

That's how Trump ended up surrounded by a bunch of fellow clowns in "acting" positions. He used it to get around advise and consent and make himself as much of an autocrat as he could.

[MineralMan]

31. More Echoes of Trump - Distrust of One's Own Intelligence Services

"I don't like what you're telling me. You're fired!"