The heads begin to roll in Russia
European media report that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the house arrest of two senior Federal Security Service (FSB) officers. Colonel-General Sergei Beseda, Chief of the FSB's "Fifth Service," reportedly was detained along with his deputy, Anatoly Bolyuk, charged with providing flawed intelligence about Ukraine and their improper use of operational funds. Separately, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's national security council chief, claimed that several Russian generals have been fired. The implications portend more suffering yet to come, but likewise opportunities to increase pressure on the Russian leader from within.
Perhaps emulating Joseph Stalin, this could be the onset of a purge and Putin's desperate ploy to provide his domestic audience with a fall guy for self-inflicted wounds. His call to rid Russia of "scum and traitors" as "a necessary self-purification of society" might be Putin's theatrical unveiling of not merely a further crackdown against the Russian people, but also his version of a "cultural revolution" to bring further to heel those around him on whom he has counted to take and maintain power. If I were one of the oligarchs or "siloviki," those from Russia's intelligence services who profiteered on Putin's kleptocracy, I'd be more than just a little worried.
Putin's rhetoric is victimization, villains and heroes. He casts himself as the people's champion. Putin chose the FSB, a machine organized and conditioned to execute his autocratic vision and tell him what he wants to hear - whether or not it conforms with reality.
Putin has relied on the FSB as his principal source of power and protection, not merely at home, but also across the former Soviet states over which he is determined to restore Russia's dominion. His reorganization of the FSB from the KGB's ashes should have told us precisely the direction he planned to take.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-heads-begin-to-roll-in-russia/ar-AAVm1nK
Chainfire
(17,536 posts)That apparently extended down to the guy who cleaned the carpet. Paranoia will destroy 'ya.
There must be someone to blame for the disaster in Ukraine because the king, by the nature of being king, is infallible.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)This won't end well for Poo Tin.
Chainfire
(17,536 posts)However, no matter how tight the security, no matter how savvy Putin thinks he is, he is not an island and he has to depend on the kindness of strangers. He can not know what is in another man's heart.(or in his back pocket) Mortar shells, missiles or bombs don't know the difference in a palace and an izba, or the difference in a peasant or a national leader. Putin is living with a target on his back, he knows it and it must be very comforting.
Walleye
(31,017 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,106 posts)Rebl2
(13,497 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)with three decades of very deadly purges - to maintain power.
Estimated 9 million stalin victims.
https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Stalinsche_S%C3%A4uberungen
live love laugh
(13,104 posts)Martin68
(22,794 posts)can be accused of "improper use of operational funds" when it is decided they are no longer useful.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)prepared, even advance preparation prepared, to take pre-emptive action?
usonian
(9,782 posts)Pure speculation.
TFG was fed bogus intel, because
He never read it
He passed it along to his Russian handlers immediately
Hence, Russian intelligence got bogus information for 4 years.
Useful idiot cuts both ways.