Deep dive into how #Russia's state bureaucracy sees Putin's decision to got to full-scale war with Ukraine by well-connected @faridaily_ :
tl;dr: Only few were in the loop, there's little public outrage now, but sizable despondence or even discontent.
faridaily.substack.com/p/-?utm_source…
tl;dr: Only few were in the loop, there's little public outrage now, but sizable despondence or even discontent.
faridaily.substack.com/p/-?utm_source…
This largely squares with sources of @kgaaze and Pertsev as summarized in their podcast, i.e. most didn't have a clue or simply didn't want to believe in war beyond the Donbas. A short summary of their latest podcast by @scharap here:
https://twitter.com/scharap/status/1497677159640576011
Who knew about Putin's decision according to Rustamova: MoD Shoigu, General Staff Chief Gerasimov, leadership of counterintelligence (assuming she refers to FSB, Bortnikov). Even the Kremlin's chief of staff Vaino was kept in the dark, also due to a protracted Covid sickness.
In the (civilian) bureaucracy, not many appear to be happy, but evidently are willing to put up with coming turmoil out of duty of service. Most feel they do not have any influence over decision-making anyways, and the true consequences are yet poorly understood.
Putin played divide-and-rule with his bureaucracy: The large majority got tiny bits of information, but only very few were aware of the whole picture that would unfold with the attack on Ukraine. Even most attendees of the extended Security Council meeting didn't know details.
PM Mishustin admitted during Security Council meeting the Russian government had been preparing for sanctions for months, but it is unlikely that the government expected this scale of Western firmness. Lots of ad-hoc decision-making despite preparetions.
thebell.io/v-pravitelstve…
thebell.io/v-pravitelstve…
We already know by now that business tycoons Fridman, Deripaska, Chubays & Tinkov publicly voiced their discontent with Putin's decision to go to war. But according to Rustamova's sources VTB's Andrei Kostin "is mourning" as 20 years of his work for the state bank are in tatters.
As for the State Duma, three CPRF deputies Smolin, Matveev & Markhaev have voiced discontet with Putin's decision to go to war. More importantly, the state parliament had no clue what they voted for when the asked Putin to recognize DNR/LNR, they certainly didn't expect this war.
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