This could well simply be calculated leaking.
On the other hand, Bortnikov is Putin's head of the FSB, so it could well be that this is true and things would not change much with him in power inside Russia. It's also conceivable that, if this is true, it's another ruse like that of allowing Dmitry Medvedev to act as president while Putin actually ran the country as prime minister, and Putin will still be the man in charge in Russia. On the third hand, if it means stopping the assault on Ukraine, that at least would be positive.
Under Bortnikov, the FSB has expanded its operations both domestically and internationally. Its repressive state-security capabilities have been amplified and employed to silence Putin’s critics both at home and abroad, in ever more brutal ways.
Shakedowns, death threats and assassinations have become commonplace. Just a list of the FSB’s violations of Russians’ human and civil rights since 2008 could fill volumes. Perhaps the most publicized recent case is the attempted poisoning of the opposition activist Aleksey Navalny, now jailed, but there are many others.
[...]
[Bortnikov] has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department for alleged FSB involvement in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
SpyTalk
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