Yeah! corruption is so generalized that he was fooled by his secret services and he no longer controls much.
At the beginning of March 2022, less than two weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was no longer any doubt: instead of a triumphal entry into kyiv, to the cheers of its inhabitants, the glorious Putin's army was routed, suffering heavy casualties. The shadow of the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) began to hang over the "special military operation", with rumors rife that Vladimir Putin, a professional "intoxicator", had himself been "intoxicated ".
In view of the humiliation, many heads were bound to roll. Logically, Putin should have first attacked Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB, the Federal Security Service, and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council who, according to a forthcoming book, would have convinced them to favor a military solution in Ukraine. Putin should have taken it out on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valeri Guerassimov, who had reassured him by bragging about “the great experience” of the Russian troops.
Punishing them for example and in public could however have proved counter-productive and constituted an admission of failure, when officially Russia had not deviated one iota from its plan in Ukraine. And then, Bortnikov, Patrushev, Shoigu and Guerassimov undoubtedly pleaded “not guilty” claiming that they too had been fooled by reports, provided by the secret services.Reports that described the Ukrainian army as non-operational, Volodymyr Zelensky as a buffoon with no real presidential material, and bet on a disunited and passive West, as in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.
These intelligence services, it should be remembered, are made up of three main organizations: a military, known by its name of the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) – placed under the command of the Minister of Defense, but in reality of Putin; and two civilian organizations reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation, the SVR, Foreign Intelligence Service, and the FSB, Federal Security Service, responsible for counterintelligence, mentioned above.
https://www.lejdd.fr/International/guer ... nt-4146961Too proud to stop this lost war, He will end up having to hide in a mouse hole, this jester, after having completely destroyed the economy of his country.