The United States estimates that the embellished data has led, among other things, to a failure of international diplomatic efforts.
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin subordinates have given him embellished information about the course of the war in Ukraine and the impact of anti-Russian sanctions on the country’s economy, U.S. and British intelligence sources say.
According to intelligence services, the president’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth.
– We believe that Putin’s advisers have misled him about the poor performance of the Russian army and the crippling of the Russian economy due to sanctions. His assistants were afraid to tell the truth, said a White House spokesman Kate Bedingfield According to CNN (switch to another service).
According to US data, Putin has not received any real information about the poor performance of Russian forces in Ukraine. Putin has also not known that Russia has had to send conscripts to war in Ukraine and that they have also been overthrown.
It has now become clear to Putin that reports of the war have been over-optimistic, leading to a rift between the president and the defense ministry.
“We have information that Putin has experienced being misled by the Russian army, which has caused tensions between him and the military leadership,” Bedingfield said.
According to Bedingfield, there are now “permanent tensions” between Putin and those close to him because of distorted information.
Obstructed diplomatic negotiations
According to the United States, embellished data has also led to a distorted picture of the effects of economic sanctions, for example. This, in turn, has hampered international diplomatic negotiations with him to end the war.
Representative of the United States Department of Defense John Kirby considers intelligence “worrying” because it may mean poor success for peace talks.
– One Achilles heel of authoritarian regimes is that there are no people in those systems who speak the truth to those in power or have the opportunity to speak the truth. I think we are seeing this now in Russia, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his visit to Algeria According to the Washington Post (you will switch to another service).
British intelligence: Putin has underestimated the resistance
Also director of the British Intelligence Service GCHQ Jeremy Fleming said Putin ‘s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth about his failed war strategy in Ukraine.
According to Fleming, Putin has underestimated both the resistance of the Ukrainians, the unity of the international community against Russia, and the effects of economic sanctions.
According to Fleming, the intelligence has seen signs of a weakened will to fight by Russian soldiers.
“We have seen Russian soldiers – who lack both weapons and morals – refuse to obey orders, sabotage their own equipment and even accidentally shoot down their own aircraft,” Sir Jeremy said in a speech at an Australian university on Thursday.
– And while Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell the truth to this, the administration must be crystal clear about the extent of these misjudgments and what is going on, he added.
Putin’s misconceptions have also been noticed in Europe.
– Putin has thought that things have gone better than they have. It is a problem to surround yourself with jesus men or just sit at a very long table with them, an EU diplomat who remained anonymous said newspaper for the Guardian (you switch to another service).
Earlier in March, several intelligence reports said the Russian security service, the FSB, had been inspected. FSB leaders have reportedly been questioned.
According to Russian media Meduza, at least two members of the FSB’s top management would have been placed under house arrest.