Russian spies in the spotlight for failures in Ukraine

The hesitant progress of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has targeted the Russian intelligence services, which, according to observers, did not prepare the Kremlin for the reality of the offensive.

Several reports suggest that a section of Russia's powerful Federal Security Service (FSB) has been the subject of particular attention, with its leader questioned and perhaps under house arrest.

This has led several analysts to wonder if everything is going well at the FSB headquarters in Lubyanka Square in Moscow, which was once the headquarters of the KGB, the secret services of the Soviet Union.

Observers believe that Russia expected to move much faster after the launch of its invasion on February 24 and that its forces would be welcomed, rather than the current resistance of Ukrainians.

“People did not make it clear to Vladimir Putin the reality of the situation,” said a French intelligence source, who asked for anonymity. For this, “the system is being bunkerized” to prevent the Russian president from receiving “too much bad news”.

In a report published by the news site Meduza, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, Russian intelligence experts, wrote that the first consequences of espionage failures were beginning to be noticed.

The head of the so-called Fifth Division of the FSB, Sergey Beseda, and his deputy, Anatoli Boluj, are under house arrest as part of an investigation, according to this Latvia-based Russian site.

The Fifth Division is a very powerful branch of the FSB that oversees its operations outside Russia, especially in former USSR states such as Ukraine, and other than the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Russian news agencies reported this weekend that the head of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, assured that the invasion “was not going as fast” as the authorities would like, but claimed that this was in an attempt to avoid civilian casualties.

Vladimir Oseshkin, at the head of a website that denounced abuses in Russian prisons, indicated that these house arrests are officially part of an investigation into the embezzlement of funds destined for Ukraine.

“But the real reason was the inadequate and incomplete information about the political situation in Ukraine,” added this Russian dissident who lives in France.

His site has published a series of letters from an alleged whistleblower called “Wind of Change” who claims that there is a climate of fear in the FSB because of his inability to warn of resistance to the Russian invasion.

“It is likely that Putin is carrying out an internal purge of general officers and intelligence personnel,” said the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

- “Wrong intelligence”? -

“He may do it to save his face after not considering his assessments (...) or in retaliation for the erroneous intelligence he may believe they provided him,” he added.

FSB Dosye, a research site specializing in the work of the FSB funded by former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said on Monday that reports of a large-scale purge were exaggerated and that Beseda had been questioned, but remained in his post.

Boluj had also been questioned, but for some years he had not been number two in the Fifth Division, adds this media.

According to FSB Dosye and other reports, Beseda was in Ukraine in 2014 to help then-President Viktor Yanukovych cope with a pro-Western uprising. The leader ended up fleeing to Russia.

The EU sanctioned the head of the FSB in July of that year following the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists.

The European decision says that Sergey Beseda, born in 1954, “heads a service responsible for overseeing intelligence operations and international activities”.

The role of the SVR is also questioned after Putin subjected his boss, Sergey Narishkin, to a strange televised humiliation on the eve of the invasion.

According to Western sources, the strength of Ukrainian resistance and the unwillingness of local populations to host Russia took Moscow by surprise.

“Before such an operation, we have to start by analyzing the state of the population, in what situation they are going to operate,” said a senior French official, who asked for anonymity.

for-sjw/tjc/zm