According to the Russia expert, people have been moved aside in the Russian administration who have expressed their disagreement with how things are handled.
22:10•Updated 22:50
Russia expert of Hanna Smith According to the Russian security service FSB, it is taking a stranglehold on the country’s administrative machinery. According to Smith, people have been moved aside in the Russian Ministry of Defense who have expressed their disagreement with how things are handled.
– In Russia, the FSB is taking a noose, just as the KGB once took over the entire machinery in the Soviet Union, Smith said on Thursday at A-Talk.
According to Smith, many of the Ministry of Defense people who have been moved aside have military backgrounds. President of Russia Vladimir Putin announced the new foreign and security policy ministerial appointments a couple of weeks ago.
– This may also have echoes of last year’s midsummer march. After that, there was talk that there would be purges.
At midsummer last year, the founder of the Wagner military company, a businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin started a march with his army towards Moscow, but abruptly stopped it. The soldiers returned back to their camps. In August, Prigozhin’s plane crashed and he was killed.
– Then the temperature was tested, who went to support Wagner or Prigožin or who said nothing, Smith explained.
According to him, we are now seeing the aftermath of those events.
– The reason is that Putin has just been elected for a third term.
President Putin was elected to his third consecutive term in March of this year. He has previously served as the president of Russia for two consecutive terms in the early 2000s.
A-Talk: What is Russia striving for right now? Watch the whole A-Talk at Areena.