OT: Putin Conducts FSB Purge

Putin is conducting a a Stalin-style purge of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB, successor to the KGB). It is almost like he is realizing his security officers were lying to him, just like he lied to his bosses all those years ago.

A “Stalinist” mass purge of Russian secret intelligence is under way after more than 100 agents were removed from their jobs and the head of the department responsible for Ukraine was sent to prison.

In a sign of President Putin’s fury over the failures of the invasion, about 150 Federal Security Bureau (FSB) officers have been dismissed, including some who have been arrested. All of those ousted were employees of the Fifth Service, a division set up in 1998, when Putin was director of the FSB to carry out operations in the countries of the former Soviet Union with the aim of keeping them within Russia’s orbit.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-purges-150-fsb-agen…

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Wow.

No wonder so many young, talented Russians are leaving NOW. (Estimated to be 300,000 since February 2022.) If Putin goes full Stalinist he may close the borders again and then they will be trapped.

Wendy

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This is late news about the FSB purge. What stood out to me about this story a month ago was that Putin’s own security service took part in arresting FSB operatives at 20 different Russian stations:

https://twitter.com/peregreine/status/1501899468987326468
March 10th

  1. #DefeatPutin #StandWithUkraine

The Russian FSB (I corrected my Tweet misspelling) is in chaos.

Here, we have a third letter from an FSB (I corrected my Tweet’s misspelling again) insider to Vladimir Osechkin, Russian human rights activist exiled in France, as translated by Russian-American, Igor Susko.

Russia is ******:
Quote Tweet
Igor Sushko
@igorsushko
· Mar 10
:thread:My translation of the 3rd letter in the series from an active FSB analyst to Vladimir Osechkin, Russian human rights activist exiled in France. Dated March 5th. Buckle up for a long thread and definitely please share far & wide. The text is over 1400 words.
Show this thread

(p.s. This 3rd Letter hooked me on Igor Sushenko and his #FSBLetters. This might be the best thing you ever read on Russia’s FSB to give you an insider’s look at how dysfunctional the flow of “intelligence” is due to fears of not being promoted within for making Putin look good, and making the “intelligence” fit the narrative. Take a minute and click on Igor’s link below this p.s.

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1501841660505837572

The next day, that which #WindOfChange was hinting at becomes reality. The purge of “suspect” #FSB heads and underlings goes into effect:

March 11th #WindofChange (an anti-war FSB agent who reached out to emigre Russian anti-torture/anti-war advocate Vladimir Osechkin, a man who fled Russia when #WindofChange sent him a dossier back in 2015 made inside the FSB to false flag arrest Osechkin) sheds background on the arrests of FSB agents as he had predicted a few days earlier. Osechkin reprints #WindOfChange’s #FSBLetters on Facebook in Cyrillic as mechanical translators are “no good.”

Igor Sushsenko is the Russian-American race car driver who took Osechkin’s work on Facebook and began translating it under the hashtage #FSBLetters. Sushenko’s work was picked up by Alexander Vindman, Gary Kasparov, and dozens of amabassadors, intelligence people, and politicians from around the world. So, Sushenko the interpreter who puts everything into easy to understand English is interpreting the “WindOfChange” #FSBLetters which #WindOfChange sends to Osechkin in France, who then passes them on to Sushenko here in the USA. Sushenko says #WindOfChange (the FSB mole) and Osechkin are “best pen pals” since #WindOfChange saved Sushenko from being arrested and possibly saved his life as well.

  1. #StopRussianDisinformation #DefeatPutin

https://twitter.com/peregreine/status/1502368786254598146

Russian-American race car driver Igor Sushko hears again from his friend inside Russia’s FSB who predicted earlier this week that this is what agents were afraid of:

@igorsushko
is a must follow, people.
Quote Tweet
Igor Sushko
@igorsushko
· Mar 11
:thread:I’ll be adding on to this thread as I receive further details, but we can get started. This info has been cross-verified from multiple sources. #FSBletters #theracecardriver
Show this thread

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1502345407350730755

Replying to
@igorsushko
On 3/11, The 5th Directorate of the FSB (Operational Information and International Relations), in charge of foreign intelligence of the FSB, incl. in Ukraine, has been raided by the both FSO, Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation ??? – Putin’s own security service.

March 13th is when reporters reading Igor Sushenko’s #FSBLetters start sniffing the story about arrests of FSB operatives:

@akoz33
As he always does, the phenomenal
@christogrozev
telephoned the FSB generals reported to have been placed under house arrest to see if they answer the phone. They didn’t pick up the receiver while others, did.
The arrests seem to be connected to literally billions that were
3:36 PM · Mar 13, 2022·Twitter for iPad

https://twitter.com/peregreine/status/1505559804802125825

Direct link to WSJ archived article:

https://archive.ph/2gwuT

#StandWithUkraine #StopRussianDisinformation

“Russian military leaders have been desperate for a symbolic victory to offer Mr. Putin, analysts say, and U.S. officials have detected indications of tension in the Russian intelligence and”(cont’d)

To give you background from a Business Insider story dated 30 MAR 22

https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-top-advisors-bad-infor…

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely being fed bad information by his top advisors about Russia’s five-week invasion of Ukraine because they are “too afraid to tell him the truth” about Russian failures in the war, a US official told reporters, including NBC News and CNN.

“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth,” the official said, citing declassified intelligence.

“Putin didn’t even know his military was using and losing conscripts in Ukraine, showing a clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian president,” the official added.

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