VLADIMIR Putin is bracing for a possible military coup after he purged 150 spies over Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine.
The mad tyrant has launched a “Stalinist” purge of his intelligence services – including sending spy chief Sergei Beseda to prison.
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Putin ousted the spooks from the Fifth Service group of the Federal Security Bureau – the department who were working on Ukraine.
The Fifth Service are believed to have been working in Ukraine for years to attempt to destabilise the country ahead of the invasion.
Vlad’s rage comes as the group are believed to have wasted billions of dollars on these activities which proved fruitless.
Russia had expected it could march across Ukraine without much of a fight – but in reality they have faced a valiant resistance.
Putin stupidly had believed victory was possible in a matter of days, but the war has instead been raging for weeks.
And meanwhile Beseda, 68, has been sent to Lefortovo prison in Moscow – the former home of interrogation and torture by Stalin.
He was dismissed for “reporting false information to the Kremlin about the real situation in Ukraine before the invasion”.
It comes as Russia analyst Alexey Muraviev warned that Putin faces a “potential coup” from within his military and intelligence services.
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Mr Muraviev told Sky News Australia that the coup may come as they want to try and win the war – not to stop aggression in Ukraine.
He said: “I think that there have been tensions between Russia and the intelligence community and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
The security professor went on: “Because clearly, there’s been a clear error of judgement that was made and it was probably driven by Putin himself about the situation in Ukraine.”
“About the initial planning and the initial phase of the invasion where the Russian military naturally assume that they’re going there as liberators rather than the invaders.
“I think that sort of false narrative was presented to them by the Supreme Commander in Chief, and when it fired back when the Russians began taking heavy casualties, Putin began quietly blaming the security services.
“Which I don’t think went really well also because he’s coming from within the security apparatus.”
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Putin’s purge was first reported by Christo Grozev, executive director of Bellingcat, the organisation that revealed the identities of the Salisbury poisoners in 2018.
He told Popular Politics: “I can say that although a significant number of them have not been arrested they will no longer work for the FSB.”
FSB officers last month carried out raids on more than 20 addresses around Moscow.
Putin fears that intelligence officers are potentially leaking information about his bungled invasion to the press and to the West.
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on the Russian security services, told The Times that Putin’s arrest of Beseda sends a “strong message” to the other elites who could challenge him.
“Putin could have very easily just fired him or sent him off to some regional job in Siberia.
“Lefortovo is not a nice place and sending him there is a signal as to how seriously Putin takes this stuff.”
The Moscow Times reported that Beseda is feared to have been leaking information about the invasion to the CIA.
Putin spoke today once again defending his invasion despite the colossal failures which has seen almost 20,000 Russian soldiers killed and potentially billions of pounds worth of equipment destroyed by Ukraine.
Putin defended the war as a “noble mission” and promised to continue amid mounting allegations of war crimes.
And it comes as Russia is believed to be preparing for a new offensive focused on the besieged city of Mariupol – where Putin is feared to have last night used chemical weapons.
Putin’s troops thought they would be greeted with cheers and waving flags in Ukraine, instead they were faced with rage and molotov cocktails.
And this slow and brutal quagmire has seen the Russians change tactics, moving from surgical strikes to indiscriminate bombardment on cities.
Ukraine is continuing to call for aid as it receives weapons and vehicles from the West.
But world leaders and Nato remain fearful to provide much more unless they risk open war with Russia and potentially World War 3.
