France – (AFP)
The director of French military intelligence, General Eric Fido, has been relieved of his post over what was considered negligence in the Russian-Ukrainian war, according to what AFP has learned from military and other sources familiar with the file.
A military source confirmed that the Director of Military Intelligence (DRM) will leave his post immediately, confirming information provided by the “Lupinion” website.
The website quoted a source in the Ministry of the Armed Forces as saying that the motive for this dismissal was “insufficient briefings” and “poor mastery of the files.”
A military source contacted by AFP said that military intelligence had been within the army’s command line since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The source added that Military Intelligence “conducts military inquiries regarding operations and not regarding intentions,” explaining that its reports concluded that Russia has sufficient means for war once morest Ukraine, “what happened proved that it was right.”
According to another military source contacted by Agence France-Presse, who asked not to be named, the news of the dismissal of the senior officer spread within the army a few days ago, but there was talk of granting him another position, which did not happen in the end.
For his part, a source close to the file confirmed that “we cannot attribute this change to the Ukrainian situation only, it is also a matter of reorganizing the apparatus.”
General Fido was appointed to the position last summer from the Special Operations Command, but his appointment caused an uproar within the military community because some considered that it was done as part of a process of rotating positions between generals.
In early March, Army Chief of Staff General Thierry Borcard admitted to Le Monde newspaper that there were differences of analysis between the French and the Americans on the question of a possible war in Ukraine.
He declared at the time that “the Americans said that the Russians would attack, they were right, on the contrary, our services believed that the war on Ukraine would be very costly and that the Russians had other options” to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In fact, the Americans obtained highly reliable intelligence regarding Russian preparations and, several weeks before the war began, decided to deploy part of it in an effort to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In this regard, Alexandre Papimonuel, a specialist in intelligence affairs at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, explained that “American intelligence used intelligence information as a means of pressure, and this represents the return of intelligence as a pillar of political communication.”
He added, “France is doing the same thing. It says internally, within the (intelligence) community and to the rest of the world, that it has failed.”
However, Papemanuel considered that it is not possible to blame only the Military Intelligence, which suffers in particular from insufficient resources and a problem in its image and in the organization of its services.
The researcher concluded that “the warning is directed to the (intelligence) community as a whole, they must be effective and aware of all threats.”
