Putin In Danger: Dissatisfied Members of the Federal Security Service May Attempt a Coup

Dissatisfaction with the ongoing war in Ukraine is growing within the Russian secret services, according to Vladimir Osechkin, activists and human rights defender. Based on sources directly from the FSB secret services, this could lead to arousal and coup d'état, informs The Times.

Activist Osechkin publishes reports from inside the secret service thanks to an anonymous source, which, according to him, provides him with authentic descriptions of the moods currently prevailing in Russia.

Most recently, on his Gulagu.net server, where Osechkin, who has lived in exile in France since 2015, has mainly monitored human rights violations in Russian prisons, published more than ten reports from an FSB officer. According to these, tensions are rising in the secret service, because its members are losing the benefits they have been able to enjoy as a result of the sanctions.

"Putin has been creating a stable environment in Russia for the past 20 years, in which FSB officers, police and prosecutors, as people inside the system, could live a comfortable life. But now it's all gone. They recognize that war is catastrophic for both the economy and humanity. They do not want to go back to the times of the Soviet Union," said Osechkin.

According to the activist, the Russian elite does not want to give up the benefits and comforts it has managed to obtain over the last two decades, so the growing dissatisfaction with Putin's leadership may turn into a coup.

According to him, the loyal employees of the state administration could turn against Putin's system, stating, that the probability of a coup during the long war is increasing. According to Osechkin, these tendencies are also evidenced by the willingness of sources directly from the FSB to share sensitive information from within the secret service, regardless of the risk such information disclosures present.

Osechkin called FSB secret service officers the "modern nobility" which in Russia's social hierarchy moves between the Kremlin and the general population, enjoying luxuries and access to services that are inaccessible to the average mortal. Many of them have also invest in properties abroad, but their access to real estate is now threatened by sanctions.