According to declassified US information, there is growing conflict between Putin and Russia’s Ministry of Defense, notably Minister Sergei Shoigu. According to American sources, the Russian president’s advisers are frightened to tell him how badly his military is doing in Ukraine and how badly sanctions are affecting Russia.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, disputed the charges, telling reporters, “To our dismay – and, indeed, this perhaps even causes us anxiety – it turns out that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon has true knowledge about what is going on in the Kremlin.”
The White House’s communications director, Kate Bedingfield, told reporters that Russia committed a “strategic blunder,” and that a lack of factual reporting had resulted in “chronic strain between Putin and his military command.”
Mr. Peskov disputed the allegations, saying, “They just don’t understand what occurs in the Kremlin, they don’t understand President Putin, they don’t understand the decision-making system, and they don’t understand how we function.”
“This is not only unfortunate, but it also generates concern.” Because such a thorough ignorance leads to incorrect actions, impulsive decisions with disastrous results.”
Mr Shoigu’s fate had been widely speculated upon after he went unnoticed in public for about two weeks last month before reappearing.
According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, Washington believes Mr Shoigu and his deputies are sugarcoating battle reports for Putin.
“We agree with the judgement that Mr. Putin has not been properly informed by his Ministry of Defence at every point during the last month,” he added.
According to US authorities, Putin was unaware that Russia was employing conscripts in Ukraine, and that some of them had been murdered.
According to a source in the newspaper, there is now ongoing strain between Putin and Mr Shoigu’s ministry.
It comes as the chief of GCHQ said on Wednesday that fresh intelligence revealed that some Russian soldiers in Ukraine had rejected instructions, destroyed their own equipment, and mistakenly shot down one of their own planes.
According to Jeremy Fleming, Putin grossly underestimated the capability of Russia’s once-mighty military forces while grossly underestimating the Ukrainian people’s opposition and Western determination.
He stated: “Putin has over overestimated the situation. Putin’s aides, we suspect, are frightened to tell him the truth.”
