Times: Who convinced Putin to start the war in Ukraine

The Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev and the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov they were the most ardent supporters of armed intervention in Ukraine and the people who actually convinced President Vladimir Putin to start the war, writes the British newspaper The Times (Inside Putin’s bunker: how he kept the plan to invade Ukraine secret). The paper publishes excerpts from journalist Owen Matthews’ forthcoming book, which the author claims is based, among other things, on conversations with Russian operatives with knowledge of the invasion’s preparation.

As the author claims, Patrushev, Bortnikov and other like-minded security forces were convinced that there was a need for a “preemptive” strike on Ukraine, stressing that it was necessary to save Russia from an allegedly growing strategic threat from West. The head of the National Guard Viktor Zolotov in a conversation he had with the director of the radio station Echo Moskvi, (which has already been closed) Alexei Venediktov had claimed that “Ukraine does not exist” and is simply a territory on which “the border between America and Russia” passes.

Among those preparing the invasion, besides Patrushev and Bortnikov and himself Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is also mentioned. However, Shoigu himself, according to information mentioned in the book, played not the role of the ideologue, but of the executioner, never showing that he wavered. However, Patrushev is mentioned as the most important figure in Putin’s entourage.

The newspaper also reports that an important role was played in the isolation of the Russian president after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the circle of people consulted by Putin, which was significantly reduced, while the number of people who believed it necessary to put under control Ukraine with the aim of fighting the West began to become a majority in this circle. The businessman Yuriy Kovalchuk is mentioned as one of these people.

The decision in principle for war was made, as the author claims, in late summer 2021. However, before Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the task was set to try to obtain major concessions from the West, to avoid war. Lavrov himself, the author writes, wanted to achieve a peaceful outcome to the confrontation and was convinced that Putin wanted the same. The claims put forward by Russia for the so-called security guarantees, which the Russian Foreign Ministry had made in December 2021, were not accepted by the West. In fact, as reported by The Times newspaper, Western diplomats, including the British, misinterpreted these claims, as they believed that Russia wanted to hold talks and convince the West that it was necessary to make some kind of concessions as part of a compromise, at the time when they were actually talking about an ultimatum.

As The Times writes, the majority of representatives of the Russian elite, even members of it Security Council of Russia, they did not know about Putin’s decision to go to war until February 21st. It is also reported that Russian President Dmitry Peskov’s press secretary, after the start of the war in a private discussion, emphasized that the majority of the members of the Security Council (including Lavrov) were told that the imminent attack on Kyiv would take place after the meeting of this body (the Security Council) in which the recognition of the so-called “Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics” would be discussed

At the same Security Council meeting on February 21 – The Times – again citing Peskov – members were told the meeting would be broadcast live. The meeting was actually videotaped.

Putin’s speech on the launch of the so-called ‘special military operation’, according to the British newspaper, was recorded on February 23. The next morning, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

Russian government officials have not yet commented on the Times report.

RES-EMP

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