(RoyalPatriot.com )- According to an independent Russian news organization, Kremlin officials were allegedly surprised when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian outlet Agency reported that lawmakers “did not know” Putin would unleash military force and were stunned when news of the invasion broke.
That seems hard to believe given the monthlong reporting from the West that Russian forces of more than 100,000 were massed along the country’s border with Ukraine and in neighboring Belarus.
One unidentified source close to the administration told Agency that Putin’s cabinet was only making preparations for NATO-imposed sanctions in response to recognizing Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign nations which they expected would be mild.
Putin announced the recognition of Luhansk and Donetsk on Monday, February 21, just three days before the invasion of Ukraine.
According to Agency, the sanctions most concerning to Putin’s cabinet were the possibility that some Russian banks would get excluded from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system (or SWIFT), that Russia’s foreign assets would be frozen, and that major international companies would decide to withdraw from the country.
Putin’s decision to escalate to invasion only increased those concerns.
Agency quoted one source who said, “Everything is f**ked.”
Another source told Agency that the Russian government had convened meetings about potential sanctions and even conducted stress tests in case Russia’s SWIFT connection was severed.
Agency reported that despite their shock at Putin’s actions, government officials in Moscow do not want to resign their positions out of fear of being labeled a traitor, with one official telling the outlet, “You can only quit to prison.”
Last Tuesday, Business Insider reported that the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies have so incensed President Putin that he threatened to target civilians in Ukraine to “set an example.”
