US leaks: Power struggles in the Kremlin and the number of victims – what the documents say

Politics

Allegedly secret documents from US authorities on the Russian war of aggression in the US have been circulating on social networks for weeks Ukraine. New information keeps popping up. Among other things, the power struggle within the Kremlin.

First reported the “New York Times” about a new 27-page document. The content: The Russian domestic secret service FSB is said to accuse the military of glossing over the number of victims. According to the report, between 35,500 and 43,000 Russian soldiers were killed by the beginning of the year “New York Times”, 15,500 to 17,500 fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

How many People really dying in the Ukraine war cannot be independently assessed. Moscow may not even know it itself.

But not only the number of victims should appear in the new report. But also insights into the Kremlin – and the internal sensitivities.

Putin probably wanted to mediate between Prigozhin and Shoigu

In February, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had a public argument. It was about ammunition, which Moscow had probably denied the mercenary group.

As the “Münchner Merkur” writes with reference to US media reports, Putin himself is said to have tried to settle the dispute between his two cronies. But Putin’s backers aren’t just courting the autocrat’s favor. As the “Frankfurter Rundschau” reports, with reference to the US news portal “Vice”, there is said to have been a plot attempt against the ruler.

The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov are said to have planned to move Russian troops to the southern front of Ukraine. Without telling the Kremlin boss anything about it – and in order to influence the course of the war past Putin. This maneuver was planned for around March 5th. An unidentified person close to the Kremlin is cited as the source of this information.

According to the US media, the time, the “Frankfurter Rundschau” reports, was probably chosen because Putin was supposed to “start a new cycle of chemotherapy” at this time. It is currently not possible to confirm whether this information is correct. But if it were an authentic document, it would fuel the rumor mill about the president’s health.

Evidence of manipulation of some documents

Expert Aric Toler from the investigative network Bellingcat has found that the documents made the rounds on the video game platform Discord, popular with gamers – and were then also distributed by Russian users on the news network Telegram, for example. So they could be real, but he also showed that some documents were clearly manipulated afterwards.

Despite major concerns, US President Joe Biden will not let the Easter celebrations be spoiled.Image: AP/Susan Walsh

The US broadcaster CNN reported that government employees had confirmed the authenticity of the documents. The US authorities seem to be taking the matter very seriously. Both the Pentagon and the Justice Department investigated the incidents, various media reported unanimously. US President Joe Biden was “concerned” about the amount of documents that had become publica high-ranking government official confirmed to “Politico”.

Many of the documents did not appear to be forged and were similar in format to those of the US foreign intelligence service CIA, government officials confirmed to the Washington Post. The documents of the supreme command of the armed forces look authentic, the New York Times reported, citing government employees.

Whistleblower is probably a military employee himself

According to the Washington Post, the originator of the massive data leak is said to have worked on a military base. A young man, who hides behind the mysterious letters “OG”, initially shared the explosive documents as transcripts with a chat group he led on the Discord platform popular with video gamers, the newspaper wrote on Thursday.

The newspaper cites, among other things, two members of the group, which consists of around two dozen young people with a preference for Waffen and assembled military equipment. Neither the exact status of the investigation nor the whereabouts of the alleged perpetrator are publicly known.

(With material from the dpa)