'At the heart of the problem, Freedman believes, is the rigidly hierarchical nature of the Kremlin’s decision-making and how those at the very top are immune to responsibility for mistakes.
“There are no incentives to tell the truth on the ground to the higher command. The senior military – people such as defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov – are all part of the inner circle. They’ve sacked lots of generals now they know that there’s a problem. But it’s not them that’s the problem. It’s always someone else.”'
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Lawrence Freedman: ‘Autocracies tend to make catastrophic decisions. That’s the case with Putin’, August 21, 2022
Context(Complete withdrawal from Ukraine (Crimea and the Donbas)) - 'Can the Ukrainians win? Yes..' - 'It was never about NATO..'