Putin Puts FSB In Charge Of Generals
- 4.04.2025, 13:02
The Economist explains what the Kremlin is afraid of.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not trust his generals for several reasons and has sent the FSB to spy on them.
At the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, FSB General Sergei Beseda was responsible for informing Putin about the advance of his troops. However, after the failure of Operation Kiev in Three Days, he resurfaced, this time at the talks in Saudi Arabia.
The Economist explained in its article why spies go to the talks. First, the journalists said that Beseda was one of the leaders of the FSB's Fifth Service, created in the 1990s to spy on the former Soviet republics. His information led to Putin's mistaken expectation that Ukraine would surrender.
When, instead of guaranteed flower-filled meetings, Ukrainians entered the war with the occupiers, there were reports of Beseda's arrest. However, on March 24, Beseda, who now holds the post of adviser to the head of the FSB, sat at the negotiating table in Saudi Arabia opposite Michael Waltz, the US national security adviser, and negotiated a possible ceasefire.
This was reported by UNIAN.
The important role of the security services in the negotiations carries two messages, says Andrei Soldatov, an intelligence expert living in exile. First, Putin views the negotiations as a stage in his military operation, and not a path to ending the war. Second, the spies have been rehabilitated: the invasion is now presented as a success.
In addition, as the publication noted, the army of the occupiers is confronting not only the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also the security services of their own country. According to Soldatov, the FSB military counterintelligence is monitoring the Russian Armed Forces. Its task is to contain the influence of popular generals and prevent political self-organization. “The scale of the purges is reminiscent of the Soviet era,” the publication stated.
Journalists noted that Putin does not trust his army and, in order to spur it on, he allowed the then head of the private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to criticize Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and the then Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu.
At the same time, as the publication noted, Prigozhin's mutiny in July 2023 aroused sympathy among some officers, and the army did nothing to stop it. After Prigozhin's elimination, several generals disappeared from sight, and Ivan Popov, a popular commander who criticized Putin's war, was demoted.
The publication noted that most importantly, the media resources that Prigozhin used for independent criticism were taken under control. Their audience numbered about 13 million people. Igor Strelkov, a military blogger who openly criticized Putin, was arrested, and others muted their dissent.
The article says that after a few months, the FSB began a purge of the army and the defense ministry, resulting in Shoigu, a close ally of Putin, being transferred to another post. Three of his former deputies and about 30 employees were arrested. According to Mikhail Komin of the Center for European Policy Analysis, headquartered in Washington, the goal was both to redistribute the money flows associated with the ministry and to break up the “clan” of Shoigu’s connections in the government.
His successor Andrei Belousov does not belong to any clan. A month after his appointment, he met with military bloggers and recommended that they direct their problems to him. He was allowed to choose only one of his deputies, Komin said, adding that Putin had appointed the other two. One of them is the Russian dictator’s niece.
The publication added that three generals were also arrested, including Vadim Shamarin, the deputy chief of the General Staff, and Popov, who had been demoted.