Putin's small circle knew he would invade Ukraine, others thought...: Report

Hinting that Russian President Vladimir is delusional, Russian journalist Farida Rustamova, quoting a sources, in her article wrote Putin seriously believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a coke addict.

With senior Russian army officers bearing the brunt of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin officials are not very upbeat about the ongoing war. In fact, some officials never have been as they think the situation is a complete 'clusterf**k', reports quoting Russian journalist Farida Rustamova said. Interviewing some senior Kremlin insiders, the journalist wrote they are "carefully enunciating the word clusterf**k, according to a translation. The original report was published soon after the invasion began at a time when the Russian side did not even see a huge loss.

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukrainians are blowing themselves up and Russia is very close to capture Kyiv, the report said. 

"No one is rejoicing. Many understand that this is a mistake, but in the course of doing their duty, they come up with explanations in order to somehow come to terms with it," another officer told her.

A meeting 3 day before the invasion

According to Rustamova's report, there was an emergency meeting of the Security Council three days before the war started and there were no hints dropped in the meeting. They were only discussing the recognition of self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics".

“The stammering of foreign intelligence head Sergei Naryshkin, the confusion of deputy Kremlin administration head Dmitry Kozak, and the worried face of Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin were evidence enough. The most influential people in Russia sat before Putin like schoolchildren before a teacher who had suddenly announced an exam,” the Russian journalist wrote.

According to Rustamova, only a small circle close to Vladimir Putin knew of the invasion while many thought that the military build-up on Ukraine's border was just a tactic to put pressure on Ukraine and the West. The small circle, according to the report, includes defense minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and the leaders of the counterintelligence service. The head of the presidential administration Anton Vaino was not informed, the journalist wrote, citing sources.

"Putin now seriously believes what [Defense Minister Sergie] Shoigu and Gerasimov are telling him: about how quickly they’ll take Kyiv, that the Ukrainians are blowing themselves up, that Zelensky is a coke addict," the report said quoting a source who are now doubting Putin's state of mind.

The report said the head of a big Kremlin-backed bank Andrei Kostin is in mourning and some members of the Russian assembly are mulling resigning for their seats.

"Did anyone expect Putin to decide to go to war? Everyone assures me they didn’t. They thought that the president was escalating the situation in order to have more trump cards in negotiations," the journalist wrote.