A new set of US intelligence documents found on the Internet reveals details of disputes between Russian officials in connection with the war against Ukraine, writes The New York Times (NYT).
For example, the materials, according to the paper, describe how Russia’s FSB secret service accuses the Ministry of Defense of concealing Russian losses on the battlefield. At the same time, it testifies to the fact that the leakage of American intelligence information could be much more extensive than previously thought.
The NYT obtained 27 pages of classified documents that were not part of the 53-page set released late last week. The leak is again in the form of photographed sheets, which, according to the newspaper, come from the US National Security Agency (NSA), the Office of the Director of Intelligence (ODNI) and the intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense.
“Taken together, the documents underscore several of the main reasons why many analysts believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been unable to achieve a military victory in more than thirteen months of war,” the NYT reports.
One of these reasons is internal disputes and shifting blame for failures among the components of the Russian state. In one of the reports dated February 28, for example, American intelligence reports that the FSB accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of “obfuscating Russian losses in Ukraine.” They presented the development as further evidence of “the reluctance of military officials to convey bad news to higher levels of command”. The FSB reportedly put the number of Russians killed and wounded at 110,000, while the number presented by the Russian Ministry of Defense was not specified in the leaked report.
According to the NYT, this information is apparently based on electronic intercepts of the US secret services and, together with other materials, illustrates how deeply US intelligence agents have penetrated almost all branches of the intelligence apparatus and military structures in Russia.
However, they also indicate the larger scale of the classified information leak that has affected Washington. Each newly declassified intelligence document carries the risk of revealing the ways in which that information is collected, the paper reminds.
US officials confirm to the media that at least some of the documents, the contents of which have become public in recent days, are authentic, while a spokesman for the US Department of Defense on Monday described the leak as a threat to the security of the United States. Meanwhile, both Moscow and Kyiv question the authenticity of the materials and link them to the information operations of the other side of the conflict ahead of the expected spring Ukrainian counter-offensive on the eastern Ukrainian battlefield.
Video: Russians follow the KGB manual, says Titarenko (April 12, 2023)
Russians follow the KGB manual and create an image of the good side and the bad side, says Titarenko | Video: Video, Linda Bartošová
