Putin appoints FSB chief Bortnikov to lead Kursk operation

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

According to the American Institute for the Study of War, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin appointed FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov as the head of the "anti-terrorist operation" after the Ukrainian army entered 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," states the ISW report.

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

ISW explains that Bortnikov's appointment as head 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 published a recording of when the Armed Forces of Ukraine entered the Kursk region. The statement reads that on the first day alone, 29 prisoners were captured by Kyiv.

The day before, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, 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 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had entered the territory of the Russian Federation, and 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 to breach the border in the Kursk region, but Gerasimov "ignored all warnings and decided not to bother President Putin with this information."

Part of the Kremlin's political elite believes that Bortnikov will be Putin's successor. He was accused, among other things, of participating in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Bortnikov has set himself the goal of restoring "Soviet" order in the special services, implying that the discipline there is not what it used to be.

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