US intelligence believes that Putin is lying about the course of the war in Ukraine; meanwhile, conscription began in the Russian Federation

US intelligence agencies have partially declassified a report stating that Putin's entourage does not provide him with accurate and complete information about what is happening in the war in Ukraine, reports with the BBC.

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White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield told reporters about the content of the report.

"Tensions between Putin and the military"

“We have information that Putin feels misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in ongoing tension between Putin and the military leadership,” Bedingfield said.
“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how effectively the Russian military is operating and the extent to which the Russian economy is affected by sanctions. And all because his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth,” the communications director explained.

According to Bedingfield, the Biden administration decided to declassify this information in order to show what a strategic mistake the war with Ukraine was for Russia.

Kate Bedingfield noted that the sources of this information or the methods by which the intelligence obtained this information cannot be disclosed.

“Putin’s war was a strategic mistake that left Russia weaker in the long term and increasingly isolated on the world stage,” she said.

“Putin made a big mistake”

A similar opinion was expressed by the head of the British electronic intelligence GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming.

He said that Russian President Putin, before the attack on Ukraine, inadequately assessed both the strength of his army and the enemy, and now he is afraid to report on the real state of affairs.

On the subject: Risk of Russian use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine increases, experts say

“Putin was very mistaken in assessing the situation. We think Putin’s advisers are now afraid to tell him the truth,” Reuters quoted Jeremy Fleming as saying at the Australian National University in Canberra on Wednesday.

“This is causing concern at the Pentagon.”

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the US military agrees with the White House's assessment that Russian President Putin is poorly informed about events in Ukraine. The Pentagon, Kirby said, is concerned about this assessment.

“This is his army. This is his war. He chose her... The fact that he may not fully understand the extent to which his troops are failing in Ukraine raises some concerns,” Kirby said.

According to a Pentagon spokesman, Putin's poor awareness could lead to not entirely correct decisions during negotiations to end the conflict.

"If he's not fully informed about how bad things are going for him, how are his negotiators going to come to an agreement?" - Kirby is surprised.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized these reports.

“They simply don’t understand what’s going on in the Kremlin. They don't understand President Putin. They don't understand the decision-making mechanism. They don’t understand the style of our work,” Peskov told reporters. According to him, this raises concerns: “It turns out that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon have real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.”

Why intelligence was not silent

In itself, the conclusion that Putin communicates little with anyone and trusts few people, except for a narrow circle of security officials he has long known, is not new. This is partly due to the stringent quarantine measures put in place around him since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But recently, this is not the first time that articles have appeared in the American press, which conclude that Western intelligence agencies have indeed found some way to find out what is happening around Putin. The Biden administration began systematically publishing information known to it since last fall - part of this strategy included numerous and ultimately confirmed warnings about the preparation of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Typically, intelligence agencies do not make information they receive public for various reasons, including to protect their sources. But in this case, the information received was made public in an attempt to prevent war.

Spring call

Russian President Putin signed a decree on spring conscription - 134,5 thousand people should go into the army, reports with the BBC.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the number of conscripts this year will be less than last year, and conscripts will not be sent “to any hot spots.” The recruitment campaign will begin on April 1 and end on July 15. Citizens aged 18 to 27 who are not in the reserves are subject to conscription, which is 134 people, the decree says.

On March 29, Shoigu spoke about the draft. This was his first performance since March 11th. The defense minister's absence from public space during the war raised suspicions in the media about his health and possible criticism from Putin over the course of hostilities in Ukraine. Moscow rejected these suspicions.

Shoigu said that 134,5 thousand young people will be sent to military service this spring - “less than were called up in the spring of 2021.”

“I would like to emphasize that the conscripts will not be sent to any hot spots,” he promised.

This is 7 more people than last fall, and almost as much less than it was in the spring conscription of 2021, human rights activist Pavel Chikov draws attention.

Russia confirmed that Russian conscripts were captured in Ukraine. From official statements it followed that they were returned to Russia. The military prosecutor's office was instructed to investigate how the conscripts ended up in Ukraine following Moscow's claims that this would not happen.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian State Duma decided to return to the consideration of a bill that would seriously facilitate conscription for military enlistment offices. The document has been sitting idle since 2018. According to the draft, the agenda can be sent by registered mail, and not just delivered in person, as it is now. If the conscript has not received a summons, he himself must appear at the military registration and enlistment office.

Later it became known that the State Duma postponed the second reading of this bill until April. The first dispatches to military units, by order of the Minister of Defense, should begin in the third decade of May, Chikov specified.

Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Yevgeny Burdinsky claimed the day before that the “events of the upcoming conscription” are in no way connected with the conduct of a “special military operation,” since “only officers and military personnel under contract” are sent to participate in it. “There is nothing threatening for conscript military personnel in this operation,” Vladimir Tsimlyansky, a representative of the organizational and mobilization department of the General Staff, said on March 31 after signing the decree.

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Putin, on March 8 (the day before the Ministry of Defense admitted “several facts of the presence” of conscripts in Ukraine, stated: “Soldiers undergoing compulsory service do not and will not participate in hostilities. There will be no additional conscription of reservists from the reserves.” .

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