Inner circle shrinks under Putin’s withering gaze

Russian security council’s televised session exposes the president’s paralysing effect on his underlings

‘I was struck not just by the toxic atmosphere, but also the King Lear vibe as courtiers were expected to vie with each other in playing to the lunacy of the day’

‘I would like to point out that Russia has done all it could from the start to resolve all the disagreements’

THEY convened in the Tsarist splendour of St Catherine’s Hall in the Kremlin, a polished marble chamber of vaulted ceilings and grand chandeliers.

For President Vladimir Putin and his top lieutenants, yesterday’s special session of the Russian security council was designed to show both strength and resolve.

Yet as the cameras rolled, this rare, televised glimpse into the Kremlin’s normally secretive proceedings made one thing very clear. Just like many previous rulers of Russia, Mr Putin’s underlings are clearly scared of him.

And just like anyone who is nervous of their boss, they can fluff their lines during important meetings. In an exchange that exposed the genuine anxiety within the elite about its threat to invade Ukraine, Mr Putin’s feared foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, seemed lost for words when asked whether Russia should recognise the separatist governments in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Doing so is likely to lead to Russian troops being dispatched to both regions, a move the West would regard as a de facto invasion.

Initially, Mr Naryshkin said he felt that Russia should give Ukraine “one last chance to seek peace”. That apparently did not please Mr Putin, who, with a smirk, then asked him: “Do you want to recognise their sovereignty or do you want to launch talks?”

When Mr Naryshkin then began stuttering, Mr Putin barked: “Speak up!”

After his spy chief took the hint and said he backed the annexation of the separatist regions, Mr Putin laughed and shook his head: “We’re not talking about it, we’re not debating it.” A visibly shaken Mr Naryshkin nodded: “Yes.”

The sight of one of Russia’s most powerful spies being dressed down like a schoolboy was one of several unscripted dramas in the meeting, which some said revealed a lack of chemistry between Mr Putin and his aides.

Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert and associate fellow with the Council on Geostrategy, likened it to watching a Shakespearean drama.

“I was really struck not just by the toxic atmosphere, but also the King Lear vibe as courtiers were expected to vie with each other in playing the lunacy of the day,” he tweeted.

Mr Naryshkin, whose spy agency has been accused by Western intelligence of mounting massive cyber-attacks on Ukraine, was among two dozen senior officials who presented reports to Mr Putin during the meeting. It lasted for 90 minutes and was broadcast on all major Russian TV channels.

One by one, the attendees took to a white lectern to deliver their assessment of whether Russia should recognise Ukraine’s breakaway republics. Several of the speakers, though, struck with stage fright, or confused about what was expected of them. They were most likely not helped by Mr Putin himself, who drummed his fingers, fiddled with a pencil and generally looked tired and impatient.

Dmitry Kozak, Russia’s lead negotiator with Kyiv, listed Moscow’s grievances and was about to give his opinion on annexing the separatist regions before he was cut short by Mr Putin: “Let’s stop your speech here,” he said.

Elsewhere, there was little sign of Mr Putin stepping away from his view that the crisis was anything but the fault of Ukraine and Nato. “I would like to point out that Russia has done all it could from the start to resolve all the disagreements,” he said at the start of the meeting, accusing Kyiv of having carried out “punitive” military operations against the separatist regions.

Most of the contributions from his minions, meanwhile, talked up the idea of an all-out conflict.

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994 in return for territorial guarantees from Russia, could easily reinstate them. “It is in a position better than that of Iran’s or North Korea’s,” he said.

He also claimed that separatist-held territories were shelled over 40 times overnight, describing it as a “preplanned attack”.

What purported to be a live televised account showed signs of having been carefully choreographed and recorded in advance. A close-up of the wristwatch of Dmitri Medvedev, the security council’s deputy chairman, showed the time to be just before 1pm, some five hours ahead of when Russian viewers were watching. Mr Putin also revealed details of a conversation he had had with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who tried to convince him on Sunday that Washington was ready to make compromise. He saw no such sign of that, he told his colleagues.

In comments that will not have pleased European leaders, Nikolai Patrushev, the security council’s chairman, said that Moscow should only focus on talks with Washington. “The only party we needs to speak to is the United States” he said. “Others will do as the US tells them to.”

Mr Putin also said that US President Joe Biden had told him that the West might be willing to agree a moratorium on Ukraine joining Nato. That, Mr Putin said, was not a sufficient concession in Moscow’s eyes.

The meeting appeared calculated to portray a leader carefully arriving at an important decision after weighing all the evidence from his subordinates. In reality, it seemed his mind was probably already made up.