General Roman Gavrilov, deputy head of Russia's National Guard, arrested in apparent purge of military and intelligence commanders. Gen Gavrilov was reportedly arrested either because of "leaks of military info that led to loss of life" or the "wasteful squandering of fuel", according to Christo Grozev, the chief Russia investigator at the Bellingcat open-source intelligence reporting project.
"One thing is clear: it's doubtless that Putin recognises the deep s--- this operation is in," he wrote on Twitter. "It's so bad that he changes horses in mid stream – a big no-no during war."
Gen Gavrilov had previously worked as a commander in the FSO, the military unit tasked with guarding the president. Russia's National Guard has been fighting in Ukraine and has reportedly suffered heavy casualties.
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, two Russian journalists considered best connected to Russia's intelligence community, said Colonel-General Sergei Beseda, the head of the FSB's Fifth Service, and his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh, had been arrested for corruption and intelligence failings.
"It looks like two weeks into the war, it finally dawned on Putin that he was completely misled. The department, fearful of his responses, seems to have told Putin what he wanted to hear," they wrote in an article for the Centre for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...ssia-traitors/