WSJ: Putin receives distorted data about Ukraine war. His associates downplay losses and exaggerate Russian army’s successes

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been receiving inaccurate information about the war in Ukraine, according to an investigation carried out by The Wall Street Journal.

The journalists based their conclusions on “months of interviews with current and former Russian officials”.

The article states that Putin gets a daily briefing on the war. However, the information he receives has to go through the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Security Council, and its head Nikolai Patrushev, WSJ claims. This is the reason the updates Putin is eventually given can be outdated by several days and no longer be relevant. Furthermore, the president’s associates downplay the losses suffered by Russian troops and exaggerate the army’s successes.

“Mr. Putin, current and former Russian officials and people close to the Kremlin say, remains fully committed to bringing Ukraine to heel and is ready to mobilize Russia’s economy and population for years to succeed,” WSJ writes.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has called the information shared by WSJ “idle speculation”. “The president, just like before, has several channels of receiving information. Any claims that he gets distorted data are untrue,” Peskov said.