President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. (photo: Reuters)
uietly,
as the U.S. news cycle moved on from the food-fight that erupted over
the veracity of reports that Russian hackers had played a key role in
influencing the course of the U.S presidential election, Russian
security forces loyal to Russian president Vladimir Putin moved quickly
and ruthlessly to plug their intelligence leaks.A sure sign that information was flowing out of Russia in a manner unacceptable to Putin.
The reports are sketchy, but widespread among veteran Russian observers is the belief that a portrait of a purge is emerging. The New York Times cites “multiple Russian news reports” saying, “Two Russian intelligence officers who worked on cyberoperations and a Russian computer security expert have been arrested and charged with treason for providing information to the United States.”
The Times goes on to cite “one current and one former United States official, speaking about the classified recruitments on condition of anonymity” as confirming that “human sources in Russia did play a crucial role in proving who was responsible for the hacking.” RSN frequent contributor and former CIA counter-terrorism expert John Kiriakou notes that in Putin’s Russia these are “executable offenses.”
At this stage the behavior of Putin’s security forces seem highly likely to indicate a harsh crackdown on officials providing information to American and western investigators concerning Russian involvement in the so-called hacking of the U.S. presidential election. This further appears to be a confirmation of assertions by U.S. intelligence officials that Russian operatives were involved in providing to Wikileaks confidential emails obtained illegally from the servers of the DNC and Clinton campaign officials.
One question that jumps out is this: why would veteran high-ranking Russian intelligence officials risk their lives to reveal to American and western investigators the role of Russian operatives in the hacking of the U.S. presidential election? The answer may be that opposition factions in Russia are as opposed to the Putin-Trump alliance as American opposition factions are to the Trump-Putin alliance.
Russian affairs analysts have for years studied interactions of the old-guard Communist, Soviet officials and loyalists in relation to the new-guard Putin regime.
Putin’s public position is that he is leading Russia into a new era of better international cooperation. However, his critics counter by saying that a more efficient system of international exploitation is what he is really building.
Putin’s modernized empire relies on wealthy oligarchs acting as feudal lords overseeing the modern Russian Federation’s satellites. Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a prime example. Yanukovych, a staunch Russian-Putin loyalist and a leader of Ukranian oligarchs, controlled Ukrainian affairs from 2010 to his removal from power in a U.S.-backed overthrow in 2014. Yanukovych is now in exile in Russia and wanted in Ukraine for high treason.
All of this creates the backdrop for the new and very rapidly emerging relationship between a quintessential American oligarch, Donald Trump, and the man he calls the “very smart V. Putin.”
Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
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