So, Putin is firing his FSB intelligence officers at lightening speed.

[Baitball Blogger]

It's an admission that he went into this war with false intel. He thought Ukraine would be a 2-15 day operation. The assessment I've read is that he only has himself to blame because he was intentionally looking for an opportunity to attack. And the underlings gave him what he wanted.

Couldn't help thinking that this also happened when GWBII was president. He wanted a reason to invade Iraq, and his inner circle, Condoleza Rice, Colin Powell and others were only too happy to be the public face to serve the cooked up Yellow Cake false meme. Wish Bush would have fired them all, like Putin did.

How unlucky we all are, in this time in history, to have a slew of leaders who have risen to the highest levels of government, where they are allowed to create false perceptions of the world, and act upon them.

[lame54]

1. Fired?

[mitch96]

6. Fired as in BANG fired? or hit the street BANG?

[hadEnuf]

23. It could also be a purge.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Maybe Putin caught FSB plotting against him?

Who knows what is going on in Moscow right now.

[smb]

12. Maybe Zelenskyy's Trolling Is Having An Effect

Zelenskyy announced that an FSB insider gave his people intel on assassination attempts, which seems like an odd thing to do -- unless it was simply to troll Putrid and make him distrust the FSB -- or unless he figured that Putrid would figure that it was just trolling and ignore it it, in which case Zelenskyy announcing the existence of an FSB mole was a perfect coverup for the fact that there really is an FSB mole....

[Irish_Dem]

15. Zelensky is using Putin's KGB background against him.

Playing with Putin's head.

Putin would certainly infiltrate an enemy's secret intelligence services.

But Putin would not have announced it. So what does it mean that Zelensky announces it?

Putin thinks he has the world's best and most secure intel services in the world. But where is Zelensky getting his good intel.

OK let's start firing people.

Putin must be going in circles and getting paranoid.

[Lucky Luciano]

22. Usual way to find moles is to give different fake intel to different agents...

…then see if any of those intels get spread.

[Irish_Dem]

27. Which means Putin is now busy mole hunting.

And house cleaning.

So Zelensky is making sure Putin is preoccupied with domestic problems.

[TheBlackAdder]

14. People in Putin's inner circle are probably about as nervous as those in Kim Jong-Un's.

[Irish_Dem]

16. Yes that is certainly the case now, 2 FSB chiefs, and 8 generals fired.

The inner circle is anxious now. And this is exactly Putin's intent.

[wcmagumba]

3. More likely gulaged, windowed or poloniumed...nt

[PortTack]

4. He put 2 under house arrest....probably includes meals with tea

[Hugin]

5. By an open window with a lovely view...

Of the quarry.

The lesson of Rasputin is still fresh in bear country.

[moondust]

7. One can't expect too much

integrity or accuracy from a system that has long run on strictly enforced toadyism and top-down corruption. That's how autocracies roll.

[Chainfire]

8. A tyrant can always find someone to blame for his personal failures, he has to because

tyrants don't make mistakes.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Whom does he think will do the job better than them?

[smb]

13. Putrid Thinks They're A Bunch Of "Dopes" And "Babies"...

...just like his Mini-Me.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Putin thinks he is smarter than the whole lot of them.

Narcissistic sociopath.

[mitch96]

10. "He wanted a reason to invade Iraq" I thought it was Cheney and his oil buddies whispering

in his ear.
As the saying goes "never let a crisis go to waste"... I wonder how the US and NATO are gonna use this crisis to their advantage. For sure this is gonna take russia and it's influence down a few notches. Maybe make it another pariah like North Korea. Crap economy that has nukes.
Shoot, where is my crystal ball...
m

[Irish_Dem]

18. I agree. Putin thought he would emerge as the 21st century superpower.

Instead he will be the next North Korea.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. That didn't help. Cheney definitely had his own agenda, which probably was

responsible for the 9/11 attack. The oil pipeline deal in Afghanistan.

But, Bush was easy to influence. Growing up in a household with a CIA director father who had unfavorable views of Iran, Iraq and Russia, he was already indoctrinated to that kind of move.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. When Ken Lay of Enron had his own office in the WH laying out the oil fields I knew enough.

W admin is a stain that will never go away. We displaced as many as Russia is doing right now, used chemical weapons including white phosphorous, torture was legal and we "kick(ed) some ass." Right W? Go back to your painting and Cheney, if you're not truly Voldemort, how are you still alive? Colin and Condi: Thanks for all the lies about WMD, aluminum tubes and yellow cake uranium.
Oh and 17 of the 19 911 hijackers were SAUDI's. Yellow magnets and MSM took care of any of those silly details.

[CentralMass]

11. Like the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Cheney cake walk.

[Fiendish Thingy]

20. My understanding is the FSB controls the actual nuclear warheads

The military controls the delivery systems.

Putin isn’t just getting revenge for bad intelligence, he’s likely securing the perimeter of insiders close to him.

[SWBTATTReg]

21. How out of touch is this supposedly TOP TIER KGB Russian Operative (Putin). How

embarrassing, and shows just how much this thug is out of touch w/ his own capabilities, his own people.

[turbinetree]

25. Or his he throwing them out of 15 story buildings.....

[patphil]

26. Putin and Trump are alike. They get angry if the information they get isn't what they expect.

So there is a tendency for their subordinates to sugar coat everything to avoid their wrath.
The only difference is that Putin has a lot more governmental and military experience, and shouldn't have believed it would be that easy.
His ego betrayed him.
Now he has to gamble that brutal bombardment of the cities will force a quick end. Six months from now I think he'll wish he never invaded Ukraine.
He's really worried that the people of Russia will see what he's done. If the war's over he can probably ride it out, but if it's ongoing, there will be hell to pay in the form of pissed off Russian citizens.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. +1