SBU Major General Speaks About Split In Putin's Entourage Caused By Kursk AFU Operation

Security services against the military.

Western media, citing Ukrainian officials, write that one of Ukraine's goals in the operation in the Kursk region is to "destabilize Russia".

Can this goal be achieved? Will Muscovites really worry about the fate of the Kursk residents? Charter97.org spoke about this with the former Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Reserve Major General Viktor Yahun:

— Let's be honest, when this operation began, we understood that it was the first level, tactical. Now we are reaching a strategic level. But no one knows the strategic idea of the Ukrainian authorities at the moment, at all. We can only theoretically talk about this goal.

If we talk about destabilization of Russia, then I believe that the operation in the Kursk region will not help this. Of course, this will undermine the foundations on which Putin's ideology is based, that he allegedly can ensure the security of Russians in exchange for a part of some rights. Like, "I will take away your freedom of speech, freedom of expression, some other your rights", and instead "I will give security, stability, everything will be fine, no one will cross our borders."

In this regard, yes, the operation in the Kursk region undermined some points. But Muscovites will definitely not worry about the Kursk residents, just as they did not worry about the Belgorod residents. Already now you can see ads in newspapers where Muscovites write: "We rent an apartment, but not to refugees". Some even specify that refugees from Kursk, Belgorod and other border regions.

This is such a mutual "love" of Muscovites for the regions, it is now very clearly manifested. Muscovites do not care what is happening there now. There is curious information about the thinking of Muscovites, this was confirmed by my friend from the conversation of relatives. So, Muscovites called and said: "We have rumors that there is an agreement here, that you, Ukrainians, give us part of Ukraine, and we give you this borderland, where our "khokhly" live, this is the Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh, Belgorod region."

And this is said by a person who has a doctoral degree, that is, even at the household level, they are not outraged that for the first time in 80 years someone crossed the border of Russia and seized part of its territory.

— Will the failure in the Kursk region affect Putin's position among the Russian elites? After all, he, to put it mildly, now appears before them in not the best light.

— I think that this effectively undermined his position, there were all sorts of cracks in his image, and the closer to him, the more distrust. This was very clearly manifested in what Deripaska said in Japan, he did not even hesitate in expressions. I understand that some of them can not be silent anymore. The Russians have lost a lot, despite all these victorious releases, that everything is normal, that there will be an increase of 3% of GDP this year and so on.

Well, this is all artificially exaggerated, so everyone understands that the situation is not the most wonderful. Import substitution does not go the way they want, there are problems in various other areas — both in transportation and in the sale of certain products that Russia has always tried to supply to the Western market.

All this is very hooked, and the Russians do not know how to get out of this. If they think that the manganese ores they want to mine in the occupied territory will help them, then this is a deep mistake.

— If you look at the Russian information field, there are many lines of conflicts that escalated during the Kursk operation of the AFU. Z-bloggers and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, many claims against Kadyrov. What can these conflicts lead to?

— Kadyrov is a separate story, this is a unique situation in Russia, which at one time will give not just a crack, but maybe a tectonic rupture. This is the only region that has its own armed forces, which are subordinate only to their leader. This is not just the armed forces, but a serious military group, which is close in number to the army of Belarus.

In Belarus, there are 43,000 troops, and Kadyrov, if we take all the security services, it will be about 50,000-60,000. When they took Prigozhin's vehicles, they got tanks. There is confirmed information that Kadyrov said not to engage in military conflicts, not to take part in any active hostilities, to keep personnel, to leave the fighting. If they are captured, they try to pull out all of them to one, and one in ten is changed.

Therefore, Kadyrov is a separate story, and many do not like it. As for swearing, not only the so-called military reporters fell under the distribution, because they are trying to tell some kind of conventional truth.

Lukashenka's neighbor also fell under the distribution, saying that "we have agreed with the Ukrainians and we are taking our troops." Immediately, the response arrived: "Ah, you are taking the troops backs, and the Ukrainians used their troops in Kursk." Although this is not true, the fact remains.

And now there will be another interesting situation: they did not announce the continuation of the "SVO", "special military operation" on their territory, they announced a unique thing in general — the "counter-terrorist operation", which will be headed by Bortnikov. This is generally some kind of situation that goes beyond a healthy understanding.

Separately, Dyumin was put as the curator of all this, there is a rift between the military and the security sevices. But this is a military operation, this is a continuation of the war. Instead of calling it all a war, telling at least some truth to the people that there is a war and it is necessary to liberate their lands, the Kremlin speaks of a "counter-terrorist operation".

I looked at the amounts today, the "counter-terrorist operation" does not provide for those payments that go to the "SVO". Who should attend it? Special forces of the FSB, Russian Guard, conscripts? I deeply doubt that they will be able to cope with the trained brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and oust them from the territory of Russia.

There will be a conflict of interest: who will fight and for what money. It turns out that Putin does not trust anyone, primarily the military, appointing this "counter-terrorist operation".

By the way, we did it in Ukraine, and it initially had some effect when we announced the ATO led by the SBU in 2014. But then they logically came to the conclusion that this is still a front-line operation, it should be conducted by the military, generals who understand what army operations are. We moved on to a completely different format, where the SBU took its place of honor in the Defence Forces.

Russia either does not understand this or is trying to pin some unsolvable problems on certain structures. We will watch, there are a lot of interesting things that will be revealed now.

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