I no longer want people to die in Ukraine, I don’t want Russians to die.” The 31-year-old is a doctor and says she has worked for three Russian security agencies since 2016 – most recently for the domestic secret service FSB.The political scientist and Russia expert Gerhard Mangott from the University of Innsbruck considers Dmitrieva’s assessment to be fundamentally plausible: “I have learned from my sources that there are questions in the management staff of the FSB as to how much they are willing to pay for a victory in of Ukraine.Image: rbb/contrasts“Judging by the sources in the system, many believe that what Putin started on February 24 is leading to the abyss, to catastrophe, that it is Putin’s biggest mistake as a politician and head of state,” says Osetchkin, who also lives in France, in an interview with contrasts.One of Putin’s tactics, according to Osetschkin, with which he wants to protect himself against attempted coups: “Putin is terrified of it, which is why he is creating a large number of different departments and units that can turn against each other.”A strategy that Mangott also recognizes: “Putin is someone who likes to have a lot of actors around him who are in conflict with each other and who compete with each other,” says the political scientist.“That allows him to make a decision when the time is right, a judge’s verdict, to be the last mediator and decision-maker, so to speak.”But this is increasingly causing tension in the power apparatus, Dmitrieva says: “The employees in the security agencies are afraid that even more radical forces will come to power in the future, in other words bandits like Kadyrov, to whom they will then have to submit.” Kadyrov’s people already have better salaries and more modern equipment than the regular troops."