Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed about 150 Federal Security Bureau officers, sending some to prison, since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, according to a report on Monday.
The expelled officers are all members of the Fifth Service division of the FSB, responsible for counterintelligence in the countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine. Putin's purge reportedly includes the former head of the Fifth Service, Sergei Beseda, who has been sent to a Moscow prison after being placed on house arrest last month.
Beseda, 68, was imprisoned for “reporting false information to the Kremlin about the real situation in Ukraine before the invasion,” said Grozev, who reported the mass purge taking place at the Kremlin.The Russian explanation for his initial arrest last month was a charge of embezzlement. Andrei Soldatov, a journalist and Russian security services expert, claimed it is not standard operating procedure to send high-ranking Kremlin officials to Lefortovo. Soldatov suggested it was possible Beseda was suspected by Putin of having passed information about Russia's invasion to the CIA, given that U.S. intelligence before the invasion was so accurate.
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