According to US intelligence services, Russian President Vladimir Putin was massively deceived by his advisers about the war in Ukraine.
According to Western intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin was misinformed about the situation in Ukraine. GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming said on a visit to Australia that Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth. However, the extent of the errors in judgment must be clear to the Kremlin. “We’ve seen Russian soldiers – who lack weapons and morale – refusing to follow orders, sabotage their own equipment and even accidentally shoot down their own planes,” Fleming said.
Read more: Day 37 of the war in Ukraine – the live-ticker
A US government official had previously reported on Wednesday that there was mistrust between the Russian head of state and those closest to him: “We have information that Putin feels cheated by the Russian military,” he said.
The latest intelligence findings show a “clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information” for Putin, a US source said. On the sidelines of a visit to Algeria, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “One of the Achilles heels of autocracies is that in these systems there are no people who tell the truth to the powerful or have the opportunity to tell the truth to the powerful. And I think that’s what we’re seeing in Russia.”
Kremlin denies Pentagon allegations
The Kremlin reacted with regret and concern to the assessment by US intelligence officials that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about the military situation in Ukraine.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon had any real information about what was happening in the Kremlin. “They just don’t understand what’s happening in the Kremlin, they don’t understand President Putin, they don’t understand the decision-making mechanism, they don’t understand how we work,” Peskov said. “This is not only regrettable, but also worrying, because this total lack of understanding leads to wrong choices, tragic choices that can have very dire consequences.”
Rfi navigation account, 20 minutes 04/01/2022, 09:27| Act: 04/01/2022, 09:27