Generals Are Being Arrested Like Hotcakes

The Decembrists appear to Putin in dreams.

If the trend continues, the non-combat losses of the Russian generals from the FSB strikes will soon exceed the combat losses from the Ukrainian strikes. It would be logical in the next step to start searching for hidden agents of the Ukrainian forces in the FSB to equalize the balance.

So far, the most significant political event of the last (in the sense of priority, and so – who knows?) Putin's term was a rough "attack" on the army, and made in the classical, old regime St. Petersburg manner, as if directly borrowed from the blessed "noughties". Generals are being arrested like hotcakes, and not for the place that is most difficult to protect, because only those who do not drink alcohol also do not steal in the Russian army, and only one Belousov do not drink – prayers keep him.

Leaving aside temporarily the question of what exactly the army so frightened Putin (perhaps the Decembrists and Zhukov and Konev began to appear in his dreams), let's focus on the consequences. The main one is the sharp and disproportionate political strengthening of the FSB (and, in a broad sense, the special services in general, in particular the Federal Security Service, Rosgvardia, Investigative Committee, and so on). One way or another, Lubyanka won the duel for the right to shift responsibility for getting involved in the war on each other. Now it is innocent, and the generals are guilty.

The logical next step, in my opinion, is to clean up the Lubyanka too. All I know from the story of the wheel of terror is that its turns are synchronized with the change of the leader of the establishment race. The wheel follows the leader like a shadow. That is why there are times and races when it is better to always stay second. You can be the first too, but not for long...

The FSB (in its broadest sense) turns into a monopolist in the market of "underbosses". At the first stage, this gives a lot of small and pleasant "indulgences". Already now we can confidently say that there is a powerful "black redistribution" of assets on the market, the main beneficiary of which are people and organizations affiliated with the special services. And these are by no means the processes (or not only those) that were widely covered in the media. In fact, the main events take place in the regions, not even at the regional, but at the district level, where black roofs are repainted in red under the guise of "wartime needs".

But, having gained such immense strength, the FSB will turn into an obvious and immediate threat to the stability of Putin's power. He will have no choice but to start purge there to put it in its place “institutionally". However, there may be some points – for example, he may not have time. This is how perestroika usually begins.

Vladimir Pastukhov, Telegram