on June 24th 2023 this man was all over the news if Genny progan was the leader of a private militia that's been fighting alongside the Russian military in Ukraine the problem however on June 24 was that he was going the wrong way that morning his troops stormed Russian military headquarters in the Russian city of rostov andan armored vehicles and military helicopters in Russia's rosov region by that afternoon he was leading his troops toward the Russian Capital Moscow Vagner vehicles that are heading towards Moscow and along the way he explained why prosan was suddenly the most
serious threat Russian President Vladimir Putin had ever faced the real surprise though was where he came from this was a threat coming from inside the house this was someone close to him who he had trusted was really seen as a political for more than 20 years Putin has constructed a seemingly impenetrable wall of secret police intelligence agencies and Military groups around himself and used it to eliminate anyone who challenged his power that is until one of them threatened to bring it all down so who are the ones that keep Putin in power and why did
one of them Rebel its products are riots Terror and mass murder its tools are lies deceit blackmail sabotage war and revolution its single goal is Conquest it is the KGB the committee for State security was the Soviet Union's notorious intelligence service and it's where this whole story Begins the KGB consisted of hundreds of thousands of Agents whose mission was to spy both in foreign countries and inside the Soviet Union it monitored Soviet dissidents media organizations and even members of the ruling Communist Party All ins service of one main goal keeping the top leaders of the
Soviet Union in power the KGB even spied on the military the other major Force keeping these leaders in power by pitting the KGB against the military the Soviet leaders maintained a firm grip on power for decades until one day they collapsed Soviet Union is D who the trappings of totalitarianism in Russia are falling away it was the Communist Party itself the backbone of the Soviet state when the Soviet Union fell so did the KGB and the new Russian president Boris yelson broke it up into several smaller agencies with distinct responsibilities the federal counterintelligence service was
to prevent threats within Russia the foreign intelligence service was in charge of spying in other countries the Federal Protective Service was to protect the president and others were responsible for things like border control electronic eavesdropping and even Russia's many secret underground bunkers these are Russia's Security Services in the 1990s they were dysfunctional and weak while around them new factions were on the rise rival politicians and a new class of ultra wealthy businessmen called oligarchs were battling for power under a weakening yelson in the midst of all of this a young Vladimir Putin had risen to
the right place at the right time hey everybody welcome back to search party today's video is sponsored by a company that I'm really proud to work with better help is making online therapy more affordable and more accessible to everyone I'll be the first to admit that stress and anxiety has gotten the best of me before sometimes it's just everyday issues other times it's the work involved in starting a brand new YouTube channel whatever the case I've actually found therapy to be a great solution but I've also found that it's hard to get started finding one
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good fit betterhelp makes it easy to switch at no additional cost and there's no need to worry about insurance or who's in your network or anything like that so whether whether you're struggling with anxiety or stress or depression or just think it's time to talk to someone I really do encourage you to try online therapy with better help and we've made it really easy to get started with the link below betterhelp.com sechart thanks again to betterhelp for supporting search party and now let's get back to the episode in the 1980s Putin was a KGB officer
in East Germany then in the '90s he went from a mid-level bureaucrat to the head of the FSK since renamed the fs be then to the head of Russia's Security Council where he coordinated with all of Russia's Security Services next he became yelton's prime minister then when yelson suddenly resigned he chose the 47-year-old Putin to succeed him Putin immediately set out to consolidate power and he started by calling on the only people he knew and believed he could trust the FSB was the security service that most resembled the old KGB it even worked out of
its old building quickly after becoming President Putin pulled the FSB directly under his command then expanded many of its responsibilities and had it absorb other Security Services he then directed it to arrest oligarchs that didn't pledge loyalty to him and investigate rival politicians the FSB also trumped up fake charges against countless human rights activists journalists and dissidents this is how Putin captured so much power in the early 2000s he then elevated the other security SEC services to create a new layer in the Russian State alongside the military and the sprawling interior Ministry the MVD Putin
was pulling Russia's thousands of spies police officers and soldiers onto his side and like bricks and a wall they blocked anyone from rising up against him you have a leader in Putin who really grew up with that KGB background and has a sense of how to use these Security Services to his own ends this is Katrina dxy an expert at the center for iic and International Studies they purposefully operate in the shadows members and former members of these Services were known as the civii and Putin elevated several of them into his inner circle along with
some trusted politicians and military leaders this was a collection of close Confidant who Putin gave power and wealth to in exchange for their total subordination and loyalty the most influential members of the inner circle with the civii who worked with Putin before he was president like the head of the security Council Nikolai petev who worked with Putin in the KGB back in the 70s same as the head of the FSB Alexander bortnikov and head of the SV Sergey nishin worked with Putin in the 1990s since they owed their positions to Putin they helped keep this
wall of security services and Military firmly on Putin's side as he continued to eliminate Challengers well into the 2010s the Russian leader doesn't even try to be subtle anymore opposition leader Boris nof is murdered steps from Red Square Alexi naly who survived a poisoning from a nerve agent that CNN helped Trace back to Russian intelligence and the fs bait naali is now in solitary confinement in one of Russia's most brutal penal colonies with all his Challengers defeated the only Factions left that could hypothetically threaten his power were in this wall so Putin has developed some
tactics to C prooof it Putin and various Russian leaders before him have always Herber this fear of the threat from within first Putin gives the security Services overlapping responsibilities for example the svr FSB and Military all have formed units in charge of spying in other countries and Putin has created a new service in charge of protecting himself a responsibility long held by the fso and MVD he's forcing the services to compete against each other for his favor Putin also has them spy on each other just like under the Soviet Union the FSB has many agents
inside the military and FSB agents are often arrested by other FSB agents finally Putin frequently purges Personnel in these Services if someone seems too ambitious they're replaced with someone less threatening and more loyal not even the members of his inner circle are safe from these purges Putin's tactics have purposely turned the services and those in the Inner Circle into bitter Rivals so that if one of them Rises up against him the others will keep it in check so it was no surprise when Putin allowed a new group to form Vagner is a militia that emerged
around 2014 although it was technically illegal under Russian law it quickly became one of Putin's most useful tools for achieving goals abroad Vagner helped the Russian military invade Ukraine in 2014 and helped it fight in Syria beginning in 2015 Vagner also operated in several more countries that Russia had an interest in the person in charge of Vagner was named yeni progan he was an entrepreneur who built several companies including one that catered meals for the Kremlin where he caught Putin's eye prosan in his young adulthood was a criminal and he did eventually build up this
business Empire using this sort of gang Mafia style politics that sort of background and appetite to take on violence to do whatever it takes to succeed that really made him stand out to Putin so Putin and prosan vogner work alongside the Russian military and for years they seem to work well together but that would change when Putin made the biggest mistake of his Reign Vladimir Putin ordering an all air and ground assault on its neighbor Russia's invasion of Ukraine hasn't gone well the Russian military first failed to capture the capital ke and within a few
months only controlled parts of the east and south of Ukraine for Putin these failures pose a huge risk to his power by possibly lowering his inner circle confidence in his ability and increasing the risk that one of them might try and overthrow him so Putin has doubled down on his Playbook he had FSB leaders arrested for providing bad intelligence in the leadup to The Invasion he fired more than a 100 members of the National Guard including its second in command and fired several military generals for prosan though this was good news he saw this opportunity
for Vagner to be presented as the competent ones prian swelled vogner's ranks by recruiting men from Russia's prisons then pushed them to the front of keep battles in Ukraine most notably in the town of bakut there Vagner reported to have used brutal tactics and suffered tens of thousands of killed and wounded but on May 20th 2023 they captured it Wagner's success LED it to overlap more with the Russian military while also elevating prosan into Putin's Inner Circle where he began to publicly criticize the military leaders [Music] prosan has come out publicly saying things that no
one else could get away with saying in Russia but Putin didn't step in to stop prosan because the feud benefited him he could play the two sides off of one another thus using each of them to limit the other and in a way and disperse some of that pressure from landing on him so Putin allowed the feud to ES finally in June 2023 Putin's military leader struck back by announcing they would absorb vogner's troops essentially cutting off prosan from the thing that gave him wealth and access to Putin so on June 23rd 2023 in order
to survive prosan rebelled as his forces rised towards Moscow prosan claimed he was planning to remove just Russia's military leaders but Putin was forced to go on national television and call prosan a traitor for the first time the world could see that Putin didn't have total control and it was because the feuds he stoked between his subordinates were backfiring on him this was someone close to him who he had trusted that he had given us surprisingly Long Leash to that shock Factor was really heard of what gave this such a large [Music] impact just before
reaching Moscow prosan agreed to surrender but his Rebellion revealed a much bigger problem for Putin his wall of Security Services did not appear to try and stop vogner's Mutiny and many of Putin's top military and security service leaders were nowhere to be seen we did have evidence that some of the intelligence Services were aware that prosan was planning something but it was clear is why actions weren't taken to really stop the advance before it could begin this wall has for years successfully defended him from outside Challengers but it didn't appear totally willing to stop one
from coming from the inside it's a sign that Putin's grip on power could be weaker than ever before equally suspicious is that Putin hasn't purged the security services for their inaction and he's reportedly met with prosan and Vagner repeatedly since they're Mutiny that means for the time being the war in Ukraine will continue to put pressure on Putin's leadership but his wall of protection remains unchanged cracks them all hey everybody that's episode 2 I hope you enjoyed it we had an incredible launch last month and I just want to thank all of you that subscribed
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