According to US intelligence, Vladimir Putin has been questioned by a member of his inner circle about how he has handled the futile conflict in Ukraine.
According to reports, the insider complained to Putin about “mismanagement of the war effort” and “mistakes” committed by those running the operation.
It is the most obvious sign yet of elite Russian discontent with the conflict and the first hint that Putin has been explicitly questioned about it.
According to Russian businessmen connected to Moscow’s political elite, the situation within the Kremlin is at a “breaking point,” and if the war’s tide continues to move in Ukraine’s favor, internal strife will soon break out.
The news broke after Ukraine defeated Russia in a series of battles, causing Putin to make a very controversial mobilization announcement to fortify the front line, seize captured territory, and threaten anybody who intervenes with nuclear weapons.
Prior to being leaked to the Washington Post, the material was included in a security brief delivered to President Joe Biden and shared with other top officials.
The identity of the individual who challenged Putin is not mentioned by the Post, but it is added that it was on the brief that Biden and the others saw.
While officials are not yet openly rebelling, The Post independently talked to members of the Russian business elite to gather their perspectives and was informed that resentment has nearly reached boiling point.
When questioned about rumors that some official had challenged Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, categorically denied that such such challenge had ever occurred.
He did admit that there were conflicts at the highest levels, but he tried to pass them off as “productive arguments.”
Some people believe that we need to behave differently, but this is just standard operating procedure, he added.
Putin’s campaign in Ukraine is already in its ninth month, and he has accomplished none of the objectives he set for himself at the beginning.
An ambitious shock-and-awe attack on Kyiv that went horribly wrong when Russian soldiers encountered fierce opposition, were bogged down, and were ambushed.
Putin’s generals ordered a pullback after suffering significant losses in some of his most elite forces and said that their ultimate objective was seizing the Donbas, the eastern industrial core of Ukraine.
The Donbass is made up of Luhansk oblast, which Russian forces managed to take over during the summer, and partly occupied Donetsk.
Ukraine launched two counteroffensives as the offensive there slowed to a crawl: one in the south toward the city of Kherson and another in the north close to Kharkiv.
Both have generated profits. Russia’s soldiers were routed in Kharkiv by Ukrainian forces, who suffered many fatalities and lost a lot of equipment and ammunition in the process.
Recent estimates indicate that, primarily as a result of that assault, Russia has surpassed all other partners to become Ukraine’s major weaponry supplier.
The gains in Kherson have been slower and more expensive, but last week a Russian line was breached, causing forces to retreat by around 12 kilometres.
This departure, however more orderly and with fewer casualties than the chaotic withdrawal from Kharkiv, nonetheless counts as a crucial success for Ukraine.
The soldiers from Kiev have also advanced from Kharkiv into the neighboring provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, seizing a few towns in the former and posing a danger to a crucial highway in the latter.
In retaliation, Putin seized four of the territories that his soldiers were already occupying, claiming that any assault on them would be an attack on Russia as a whole.
He has made strong suggestions that such an assault would result in nuclear retaliation from Russia. Additionally, Putin issued a blatant nuclear threat to the West.
In addition, Putin has directed the conscription of 300,000 soldiers from Russia’s military reserves into the armed forces, but there is evidence that the net has been thrown far broader than that.
Since the decision was made, there have been several demonstrations around the nation and more than 370,000 men have sought asylum in neighboring nations including Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia.