Russian spy chief ‘thrown in jail’ as Vladimir Putin ‘turns on security officials’

Vladimir Putin has thrown a top spy chief in prison amidst concern over apparent leaks to the US about Russia’s plans in Ukraine, according to reports.

A report on Monday suggested that Colonel General Sergei Beseda, the head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence unit, has been sent to Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison, which is typically used for those suspected of treason.

In the weeks preceding the invasion, US media repeatedly quoted intelligence sources that seemed to have a unique insight into the Kremlin’s preparations for the upcoming war against Ukraine.

Andrei Soldatov, a well-respected journalist and author known for his work covering Russian intelligence, quoted several unnamed sources who said that Col Gen Beseda, 68, had been transferred to Lefortovo after he was detained and placed under house arrest last month on suspicion of embezzlement.

‘Looking for traitors a tradition of sorts’

While the charges against Col Gen Beseda are unknown, Mr Soldatov quoted sources in Russian intelligence as saying that the case was initially handled by the internal security service before it was taken over by Russia’s military counter-intelligence.

“The only thing they deal with is looking for spies,” Mr Soldatov told the Telegraph on Monday.

The apparent leaks to the US were “definitely quite unpleasant” for the Russian intelligence community, he said.

“It’s a tradition of sorts: if you screw up, you need to look for traitors to blame it on. So they started looking for spies.”

Col Gen Beseda’s “Fifth Service” of the FSB is responsible for providing the Kremlin with intelligence about Ukraine and was supposed to cultivate a political base in the country to back up the Russian invasion.

The service is also in charge of maintaining official contact with the CIA, which may have added to “paranoia” about its staff, according to Mr Soldatov.

Unclassified US intelligence reports last month suggested that Putin is increasingly frustrated with his intelligence chiefs and military leaders as the Russian army struggles to achieve its objectives.

The Fifth Service was set up in 1998 by Putin himself, the head of the FSB at the time, to enjoy a broad mandate to spy in the former Soviet Union.

Col Gen Beseda, a St Petersburg native, is believed to have close links to Putin’s inner circle, which has kept him in his job for 13 years despite his agency’s recent failures.

The Ukrainian-born intelligence chief flew to Kyiv in Feb 2014 for the final days of a violent showdown between Ukraine’s pro-Russian president and pro-Western protesters.

Col Gen Beseda was supposed to lead a team of senior Russian officers to help Viktor Yanukovych stay in power, but the Ukrainian leader ended up fleeing the country a few days later.

The Fifth Service faced a wave of dismissals in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, but Col Gen Beseda somehow managed to hang on to his job. Several of his agents across former Soviet republics have been exposed in recent years.

Christo Grozev, the lead Russia investigator at forensic intelligence group Bellingcat, last week quoted unnamed sources saying that some 150 FSB officers from Col Gen Beseda’s department have been arrested or fired in the aftermath of their boss’s fall from grace.

Col Gen Beseda’s arrest was not officially reported in Russia and, according to Mr Soldatov, he was sent to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, run by the FSB itself, under a false name.

Russian media outlets have reported several other high-profile dismissals in recent weeks.

Along with Col Gen Beseda and his deputy, who was also reportedly detained last month, a deputy head of the Russian National Guard was fired from his job pending an unspecified investigation, media said.

The Russian National Guard sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of fighting in Ukraine and saw a number of troops refusing to go to war.