According to reports, dissent over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership is slowly gaining steam within the Kremlin. From normal citizens all the way to high-ranking generals, many are extremely dissatisfied with the invasion of Ukraine. The public does not want an invasion, while generals are frustrated about the lack of progress. As a result, reports have surfaced that a number of former generals and members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) are planning to oust Putin from the presidency.

Russia’s intelligence branch, the FSB, has been reported to be very frustrated with Putin, who was once part of both the KGB and later FSB. According to reports, they were frustrated about the lack of military progress and advancements in Ukraine. Many also see the war in Ukraine as a widescale mistake and an economic disaster. This is the reason why members of the FSB had reached out to former Russian generals and military officials to plan a coup.

The “Siloviki” (or a “Silovik”) is a group of Russian politicians who came from military service, with many of these politicians coming from the KGB, GRU, FSB, SVR, FSO, the Federal Drug Control Service. This term refers to “people of force” or, quite literally, “strongmen” in political science terms. These individuals often have a “military-style” of leadership and are very pragmatic law-and-order focus.

Certain members of this group, mostly from the FSB, are supposedly working together with former generals and other military (or security branches) to oust Putin from power and reform the government.

Russian Security Expert from the Center for European Policy Analysis Andrei Soldatov claimed that these reports “matter a lot” as it was the first time in decades that the siloviki are allegedly plotting against a sitting president.

“The Russian President has been bracing for a coup for some weeks as has faced fierce criticism over his ‘special operation’ in Ukraine, and he has purged around 150 of his spies over the constant failures,” he continued.

FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (© Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KGB-FSB_headquarters,_Lubyanka_Square,_Moscow,_Russia.jpg
FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (FSB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square, Moscow (© Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).

SOFREP was one of the media outlets that first reported on Putin’s efforts to purge the FSB following the disastrous campaign to invade Kyiv and install a puppet government. Sources told us that the FSB was being blamedby Putin for the failure of the Russians to take Kyiv. The FSB’s Fifth Service, headed by Sergey Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh, was placed on house arrest as they were responsible for collecting intel on Ukraine prior to the invasion.

In fact, it was also Soldatov and his anonymous source that also reported on the FSB being purged. However, it is not Beseda’s entire fault that they gave Putin the wrong information. Inside sources reveal that the FSB has to write intel reports in a way that gives Russia the advantage or else face the wrath of Putin. Thus, they would skew results and intel so that they could appease the president. This is why Putin was misled with his invasion of Ukraine.