One of the mysteries of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is what went so wrong. Most of the really, really smart people thought the war would be over in about 48-72 hours (here, I will fess up if you’d told me on the morning of February 24 that the Russian Army would still be having its ass handed to it as Week 6 of the war was about to start, I don’t think I could’ve taken that opinion seriously)

If Russia were to invade the capital of Kyiv, it could fall within a couple of days. A full-scale invasion would cause major casualties, one of the U.S. officials said.

— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) February 6, 2022

Considering General Mark Milley’s track record, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. (9/x) pic.twitter.com/VE4HSyoyZu

— Nick Rizzuto (@Nick_Rizzuto) March 30, 2022

Some people haven’t given up.

Here’s Col. MacGregor again on March 7th saying “The war is really over for the Ukrainians…they have been grounded to bits.” (4/x) pic.twitter.com/H0q1iBVjzW

— Nick Rizzuto (@Nick_Rizzuto) March 25, 2022

Col. Douglas MacGregor predicted on March 5 that Russia would have the Ukrainians defeated in 10 days after they’d initially been “too gentle.” (2/x) pic.twitter.com/wPpExdHoWX

— Nick Rizzuto (@Nick_Rizzuto) March 25, 2022

There are several fundamental failings of the Russian invasion, the stupidity of the entire fiasco aside.

• They attacked over too wide of a front with too many objectives and too few forces to accomplish the tactical missions if they met with armed opposition.
• They assumed away the fighting qualities and spirit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
• They assumed away the possibility that the Ukrainian people might not welcome them.
• Because they assumed away the capabilities of their enemy, they didn’t adequately plan for refueling, rearming, and maintenance of their combat vehicles or sustaining their troops. As I’ve noted, the chances of a Russian soldier surviving his wounds are the same as in World War II (Russia Calling 100,000 Reservists to Active Duty and Moving Wagner Group From Syria to Deal With Ukraine Manpower Crunch).

As Week 6 of the war looms, a new narrative is surfacing.

Pentagon Press Sec. John Kirby: "We would concur with the conclusion that Mr. Putin has not been fully informed by his ministry of defense at every turn over the last month." pic.twitter.com/lj9c1Bo39w

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 30, 2022

Wednesday’s edition of the New York Times gives more depth to Jack Kirby’s statement. (The link gets you behind the paywall.)

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has been misinformed by his advisers about the Russian military’s struggles in Ukraine, according to declassified U.S. intelligence.

The intelligence, according to multiple U.S. officials, shows what appears to be growing tension between Mr. Putin and the Ministry of Defense, including with the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who was once among the most trusted members of the Kremlin’s inner circle.

Speaking in Algiers, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken acknowledged Mr. Putin had been given less than truthful information from his advisers.

“With regard to President Putin, look, what I can tell you is this, and I said this before, one of the Achilles’ heel of autocracies is that you don’t have people in those systems who speak truth to power or who have the ability to speak truth to power,” Mr. Blinken said. “And I think that is something that we’re seeing in Russia.”

Other American officials have said that Mr. Putin’s rigid isolation during the pandemic and willingness to publicly rebuke advisers who do not share his views have created a degree of wariness, or even fear, in senior ranks of the Russian military. Officials believe that Mr. Putin is getting incomplete or overly optimistic reports about the progress of Russian forces

Mr. Putin seemed genuinely unaware that the Russian military had been using conscripts in Ukraine, and that drafted soldiers were among those killed in action, according to the U.S. officials. Mr. Putin’s ignorance showed “a clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian president,” according to a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the declassified, but still sensitive, material. There “is now persistent tension” between Mr. Putin and the Defense Ministry, the official said.

The American intelligence assessment also said that Mr. Putin had an incomplete understanding about how damaging Western sanctions had been on the Russian economy, officials said.

The war continues to go poorly for Russian forces. Ukraine’s military has not only held its own but also begun counterattacking. Some U.S. officials believe that senior Russian officials are wary of delivering truthful assessments — potentially afraid that the messengers of bad news will be held responsible for the battlefield failures.

The Russian military’s stumbles have eroded trust between Mr. Putin and his Ministry of Defense. While Mr. Shoigu had been considered one of the few advisers Mr. Putin confided in, the prosecution of the war in Ukraine has damaged the relationship.

Mr. Putin has put two top intelligence officials under house arrest for providing poor intelligence ahead of the invasion, something that may have further contributed to the climate of fear.

With evidence of Mr. Putin’s frustration growing, the United States has in recent weeks been building up an intelligence case that he had not been getting accurate assessments from the Ministry of Defense and other senior officials. The U.S. officials believe that Mr. Putin is continuing to be misled and that senior advisers are unwilling to tell the truth.

While I’ve covered the apparent disarray in the Kremlin (see Top General in Putin’s Personal Army Is Arrested by FSB; Correlation or Causation? The Ukraine Invasion Has Stalled and Putin’s Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff Have Vanished; and Russia’s Defense Minister Surfaces After Two Week Disappearance and the Mystery Deepens). Some of this rings true.

Putin does not strike you as a guy who likes to hear “no.” On the contrary, he seems to have a lot in common with Barack Obama’s conceit that he’s the smartest guy in the room and can see things no one else can see; remember this?

I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.

In fairness, Putin has probably realized that he’s surrounded by idiots and learned to trust his own judgment over his time in office. But he also seems to be a case study (as we in the US have had with Obama and Biden–though heaven only knows who Biden has hired as he’s a D level f***wit) of that B-school aphorism, “A’s Hire A’s — and B’s Hire C’s. So Putin has surrounded himself with C’s.

Putting aside, for a moment, the fact that the people behind this assessment were the same ones that aided and abetted the Russia Hoax perpetrated against President Trump and who declared Hunter Biden’s laptop to be a Russian provocation is any part of this story plausible were it told by people capable of telling the truth?

Is it plausible that the entire Russian government was terrified to tell the emperor about his new wardrobe? I suppose, but if so, it speaks to an incredible level of self-delusion. I’m willing to credit that he was fed horsecrap on the operational abilities of the Russian Army because armies tend to lie about their readiness unless there is a system to enforce the rules, and there is not an ethic of lying on reports in the officer corps. I’m much less inclined to believe that he hasn’t been intensely monitoring Western sanctions as he whines about them so much. I also find it difficult to believe that Putin, the very “reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter” kind of guy described in the story, could give a public order that conscripts would not be used in combat and someone down the chain-of-command would have the cojones to say, “Igor, I don’t care that you are a conscript and I don’t care what Putin says, I’m telling you to get on the f***ing truck.” That makes no sense to me.

Even if we accept that the Russian military lied through its teeth about its capabilities to its political masters or even the upper ranks, we still have to wrestle with the idea that Putin doesn’t have any idea about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, especially about casualties. At this point, the crap has hit the fan, and anyone with an iota of survival instinct is running to get away from the splatter. It is impossible to believe people aren’t lined up to point fingers at enemies and rivals, blaming them for a major role in the fiasco. Even if the senior people don’t tell him, a “little bird” will chirp away in the boss’ ear. This could be the reason that the Defense Minister hasn’t been seen for nearly three weeks and why other people are doing what he should be doing (Russia’s General Staff Claims Invasion Objectives ‘Mainly Accomplished’ and Phase II of Ukraine Invasion Is Starting; Russian Army Begins to Withdraw From Kiev to Russia and a Lot of Folks Are Very Unhappy With the Pig in the Poke They Were Sold).

Making the story less credible is that his evaluation of the situation was leaked now. Why now? Why not two weeks ago when the same information was available?

All in all, this intel leak seems to have another purpose. It is almost like they are giving Putin a pass for everything because his staff lied to him. Consider it to be an off-ramp to facilitate negotiations. It gives him the ability to purge the senior ranks of the military and bureaucracy by blaming them for both the crap intelligence and the disastrous plan. Then he’s only left with responsibility for the idea.