Putin appoints trusted FSB chief to lead Kursk operation amid chaos

Vladimir Putin has decided that the operation to push Ukrainians out of the Kursk region will be handled not by General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov but by Federal Security Service Chief Alexander Bortnikov, also known as "Putin's successor." "Bortnikov has already proven his effectiveness," reads the ISW analysis.

According to ISW, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin appointed FSB Chief Alexander Bortnikov as the commander of the "anti-terrorist operation" following the Ukrainian army's entry into the Kursk region.

"Putin likely appointed Bortnikov as the head of the counterterrorist operation because Bortnikov had previously proven himself to be an effective manager during crises that threatened Russian domestic stability and the Kremlin regime," reads the ISW report.

Analysts note that Bortnikov was involved in negotiations and provided guarantees to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, during last summer's uprising. After re-election, Putin publicly praised the FSB director for "ensuring Russia's security and sovereignty."

ISW explains that appointing Bortnikov as the commander of the anti-terrorist operation indicates that "Putin was dissatisfied with how the Russian military command handled the situation in the Kursk region."

On Sunday afternoon, the Ukrainian channel DeepState released footage of the moment the Ukrainian Armed Forces entered the Kursk region. The report states that as many as 29 prisoners were captured by Kyiv on the first day.

The day before, the Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, lied to Putin while reporting the situation in the Kursk region. During an extraordinary briefing, he told the dictator that about 1,000 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers had entered the territory of the Russian Federation. The day before, the Russian Ministry of Defense had announced the same losses for the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region.

According to Bloomberg sources, Russian intelligence knew two weeks in advance that Ukraine was planning an attempt to break through the border in the Kursk region; however, Gerasimov "ignored all warnings and decided not to bother President Putin with this information."

Some of the Kremlin's political elite believe that Bortnikov will be Putin's successor. He has been accused, among other things, of participating in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Bortnikov has made it his goal to restore "Soviet" order in the special services, indicating that discipline is not what it once was.

He has been at the helm of the FSB since 2008.