"Divided" Ukraine a year before the war: journalists told how Putin decided to start the invasion

According to the media, preparation for war was conducted in the harshest secret, but since the summer of 2022, conversations about a possible war became a "common place" among people close to the Kremlin. Thus, on July 12, 2022, the Kremlin's website published an article by Vladimir Putin "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians". According to "layout", the article has changed many times, and one version contained a direct threat to the war.

But there was no threat in the final version. According to journalists, a source close to the Presidential Administration of Russia reported that in December 2022, three months before the start of the war, they already discussed how Ukraine would be divided between large corporations. It was assumed that one of the state or private corporations close to the Kremlin would be responsible for the development of each region.

Three sources close to the Russian President confirmed that sanctions against Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk were "the last drop" in Putin's decision to prepare for the so -called "special operation". "Reid, when he was taken away by television and crippled his party, Putin was very angry. He perceived it as a personal attack," said one of the old friends of the Russian President.

At the same time, Putin was not consulted with Medvedchuk when he made a decision to war with him, people from Putin's environment told. He also did not consult anyone else. The only person who had constant access to Putin was his friend - businessman and banker Yuri Kovalchuk. Two sources confirm that Kovalchuk played a decisive role in the decision of the Russian President to enter the war. During the pandemic, only Yuri Kovalchuk did not leave Putin's residence to avoid quarantine.

According to the newspaper, the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoiga "did not argue, and even glad" Putin's decision to start an invasion surgery. "He did not understand what the army was in and he was curious. He believed that Putin knew something he knew, and he really thought something would happen much more serious than the annexation of Crimea," one of the old ones says Putin's friends. At the same time, the Russian elite was erected before the war during the invasion.

However, as the former Kremlin official told, the whole elite opposed a full -scale war. "It is a wonderful war when virtually the entire elite is against. I talk to chiefs in Russia, there is no person from higher echelons of power, who would be for. But they understand that they need to work in the team," the Kremlin's former official says.