Tuesday 17 May 2022 09:52 AM War within Russia's secret services over bogus intelligence: Blame game erupts ... trends now
A bitter new blame game has erupted in Russia's secret services over the bogus intelligence that led Putin to believing his troops would be welcomed in Ukraine with open arms.
Much of the blame is being pointed at the door of the FSB's 5th Service for gathering 'worthless' information that misled Russian President Vladimir Putin and left him 'the most uninformed person to decide about the war'.
Disputed reports in April stated that Col-General Sergei Beseda, 68, head of the 5th Service, and his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh, had been detained in April either under house arrest or under pre-trial detention for leaking plans and embezzling funds.
The 5th Service is known as the foreign spying arm of the FSB, charged primarily with intelligence and political subversion in former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
It is also reportedly in charge of the Kremlin's 'kill list' of Ukrainian senior officials and other dissidents who live in Ukraine.
Sources have told IStories, a media outlet linked to Russia's top investigative journalists, that 'the level of professionalism there is worthless.'
Pictured: Colonel General Sergei Beseda, 68, head of the 5th Service of Russian Federal Security Service. Disputed reports in April stated that he had been detained either under house arrest or under pre-trial detention over furnishing Putin with dud information that led him to setting a target of taking Kyiv in five days, and Mariupol in three
Much of the blame within Russian secret services is being pointed at the door of the FSB's 5th Service for gathering 'worthless' information that misled Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) and left him 'the most uninformed person to decide about the war'
A woman walks in front of the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB) in central Moscow
Pictured: Destroyed Russian tanks outside Kyiv. Putin was forced to abort his plan to grab Kyiv, and has only gained control of a devastated and unrecognisable Mariupol after almost three months of fighting, contrary to intelligence he had received prior to the invasion
Pictured: A Ukrainian man walks past a destroyed Russian tank in a damaged field as Russian attacks continue in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine on May 12
In fact, Putin was forced to abort his plan to grab the capital, and has only gained control of a devastated and unrecognisable Mariupol after almost three months of fighting.
Beseda's agents were 'selling air' instead of providing hard and reliable data, according to IStories.
'They would over or misinterpret information, sometimes they would make up things completely,' said a former FSB officer.
'The senior executives used to believe all of this nonsense.
'For instance, they would
