Russian Military ‘Lie To Each Other’, Truth Tellers Could Die: Analyst

Russian military leaders are “lying to each other” and to President Vladimir Putin due to fear of being killed if they tell the truth, according to an ex-NATO commander.

Speaking in an interview, CNN military analyst and retired NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark said Russia’s system forces military leaders and the president’s advisers to “lie” about the war. The former NATO commander said people who tell the truth could be shot dead if plans fail.

“In the Russian military, they treat information as a secure important element and therefore they lie to each other. In their system, you lie up and you lie down. You can seal information because if you tell the truth, you will be the first one shot if it doesn’t work,” Clark said in the CNN interview.

He also added that Putin is aware that his top advisers are withholding information about the Russian army’s poor performance in the war, the casualties among their troops and the impact of the West’s sanctions on the Russian economy.

“Putin knows they’re lying to him, so he’s making assessments. He’s making accommodation with that,” Clark added. “He knows how the system works.”

The interview comes after U.S. intelligence suggested that Putin could be unaware that Russia is sending conscripted soldiers to the war. The Russian president could also be misinformed about the extent of losses his army has suffered over the past five weeks since the invasion began.

The U.S. officials did not provide evidence for the claim that Putin is being misled by people in his inner circle. However, Clark’s claim that the Russian system forces military personnel to lie to each other lines up with an increasing number of firsthand accounts from captured soldiers who said they were lied to about what they would face in Ukraine.

On Saturday, captured Russian Lt. Dmitry Kovalensky told The New York Times that he had only learned that Russia would invade Ukraine the evening before being sent in. He added that soldiers and even sergeants were not told they were driving until after the tank columns crossed the Ukrainian border.

Another captured Russian soldier, Lt. Col. Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich, claimed his commanders duped them into believing that they were freeing Ukrainians from Nazis.