The Russian 'Purge': Why is Putin Firing Many of His Army Generals?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been initiating a “purge” of army generals and intelligence personnel since the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin’s purge includes detentions, house arrests, sending to an “exile,” and several other repressive methods.

No one seems to be outside of Putin’s iron fist, high-ranked generals and the FSB (Federal Security Service) are all in Putin’s potential purge.

 

Invasion Failure

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized an invasion, seemingly believing his own propaganda about the power of his military forces and the willingness of his people to fight for a nation, Ukraine, that he has designated as an important part of his own.

But his plans failed, it's been around three weeks and now he’s involved in what seems like a long-term war, with US sanctions burdening his country and economy.

Last week, CIA Director Bill Burns told legislators that Putin's war strategy was to "seize Kyiv within the first two days of the campaign." The US intelligence shared this thought, that the city might fall quickly after the assault.

Instead of rapidly capturing Ukraine, the Russian military made strategic mistakes— failing to knock out the country's air defenses; deploying tens of thousands of troops without appropriate supply lines—and were greeted with a resolute Ukrainian resistance that Washington and Moscow equally underestimated.

Frustrated, Russian soldiers have resorted to methods seen previously in Syria and Chechnya: all-out assaults on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and apartment buildings, in an apparent attempt to demoralize a populace that has not embraced them as liberators or surrendered.

Michael Weiss, news director at New Lines magazine and head of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation, told Insider, "It is evident Putin was sold a bill of goods by his intelligence agencies."

Since the unfolding of the faults of the Russian intelligence predictions, chiefs of Russia's foreign intelligence service have been placed under house arrest.

The Daily Mail quoted sources as saying that the arrest of the two Russian intelligence chiefs came after Putin blamed them for the failures that led to many losses in the Ukraine war.

"The failure of their intelligence on the expected results of the invasion of Ukraine prompted the Russian president to do so, especially as Russian losses increased day after day. Putin did not expect Ukraine to resist in this way," the sources who preferred to remain anonymous, said.

It revealed that intelligence gathered by Putin before the invasion of Ukraine suggested that Russian soldiers would encounter only symbolic resistance from the Ukrainian army, and that the Ukrainians themselves were ready to rid themselves of their leadership.

However, the Russian military forces encountered tough opposition from Ukrainian soldiers, resulting in high losses and prompting Putin's officials to resort to a "brutal siege campaign that has likewise generated no results so far," according to the British publication.

 

Everyone is Threatened

As a result of this misinformation, Putin launched a purge against his loyal militants and personnel, due to their failures and what they brought Russian into.

Research by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, investigated the details of this purge.

In an internal crackdown, Putin allegedly dismissed numerous generals and detained Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence personnel.

Oleksiy Danilov, the Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, announced on March 9 that the Kremlin has replaced eight generals owing to their failings in Ukraine, while ISW cannot independently verify this information.

Putin also detained several members of the FSB's 5th Service, which is tasked with notifying Putin about the political situation in Ukraine.

On March 11, the Federal Protective Service and the FSB's 9th Directorate (its internal security agency) allegedly stormed the 5th Service and over 20 additional places.

On the same date, many media sites claimed that 5th Service Head Sergey Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh were placed under house arrest.

Independent Russian media outlet Meduza claimed the 5th Service might have provided Putin with false information about the political situation in Ukraine ahead of his invasion out of fear of contradicting Putin’s desired prognosis that a war in Ukraine would be a smooth undertaking.

According to ISW, “Putin is likely carrying out an internal purge of general officers and intelligence personnel. He may be doing so either to save face after failing to consider their assessments in his own pre-invasion decision-making or in retaliation for faulty intelligence he may believe they provided him.”