Russia’s spy and defence agencies start arguing over who is to blame for disastrous Ukraine invasion

Russia’s spy and defence agencies have started bickering over the disastrous Ukraine invasion, US officials have claimed.

A blame game has commenced between the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Ministry of Defense, the two departments of the government responsible for the Ukraine invasion preparations. 

The US officials added that it was possible that the agencies told Putin what he wanted to hear due to his deeply held beliefs regarding Ukraine. 

It comes after Vladimir Putin placed the head of the FSB’s foreign service and his deputy under house arrest after blaming them for intelligence failings that saw his army handed a series of embarrassing defeats in Ukraine.

Jeffrey Edmonds, a former CIA and National Security Council official, told The Wall Street Journal: ‘It is hard to imagine some senior intelligence person talking with Putin and not telling Putin what he wants to hear, especially if it is a belief that is deeply held, like Putin’s beliefs about Ukraine.’

‘When it comes to this guy, it’s also clear that the culture of “someone is at fault and is going to pay” is clearly still operative,’ added Jeffrey, a specialist on the region. 

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, the US deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia from 2015-2018, added that Putin is seeking individuals to ‘scapegoat and pass the blame’ to and thinks ‘he’s in a much more precarious position now’.

Last week, Andrey Soldatov, a respected author on the Russian secret services, said sources inside the FSB told him that Sergey Beseda, 68, head of the agency’s foreign service, had been placed under arrest on Putin’s orders.

Also arrested was Anatoly Bolyukh, Beseda’s deputy, according to Soldatov, who said Putin is ‘truly unhappy’ with the agency – which he ran before becoming president.

Putin is said to blame the agency for intelligence which assured him ahead of the invasion that Russian forces would face only token resistance from the Ukrainian army and that Ukrainians themselves were eager to be rid of their leaders.

Among the reasons for the repressions are the embezzlement of funds allocated for subversive and undercover work in Ukraine, as well as deliberately false information about the political situation in Ukraine.

The FSB security service allegedly handed him intelligence suggesting that Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if attacked.

In fact, the Russian armed forces have faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers that has battled them to a standstill, inflicted heavy losses, and forced Putin’s commanders to resort to brutal siege warfare that has so far yielded few results. 

Soldatov previously told The Times that most FSB agents are brought into the service as legacy hires based on their parents or grandparents being agents and are removed from mainstream schools to be educated in-house.

This is unlike western security services, which tend to recruit from elite universities or colleges to ensure they get ‘the cream of the crop’.

Alternatively, he said, the organisation did gather good intelligence – but was simply too afraid to tell Putin the truth, instead doctoring their reports to appease him.