French military intelligence chief fired because of Russian-Ukrainian war
European leaders half-heartedly accused Washington of dramatizing the risks of an “imminent” Russian invasion. But American intelligence was right, and Paris is learning from it: the boss of French military intelligence, General Eric Vidaud, will leave his post, in particular following what was judged to be an inadequacy of his services on the Russian war waged in Ukraine, AFP learned from military sources familiar with the matter.
A military source confirmed the immediate departure of the head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM), according to an information from the Opinion website. The latter quotes an internal source at the Ministry of the Armed Forces referring to “insufficient briefings” and a “lack of mastery of subjects”.
According to the military source contacted by AFP, the DRM had been in the sights of the general staff of the armies since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But the DRM “does military intelligence on operations, not on intentionality,” she said. The service’s productions concluded that Russia had the means to invade Ukraine. “What happened proves him right,” she argued.
According to another military source interviewed by AFP and who also requested anonymity, the departure of the high-ranking officer had been the subject of rumors for a few days within the army. But there was talk of another position being given to him, which ultimately would not have been the case.
The Americans “were right”
“This change cannot be reduced to the Ukrainian situation alone. It is also a question of reorganizing the service, ”said a source familiar with the matter. General Vidaud was appointed to this post last summer, from the Special Operations Command (COS). But his appointment had been the result of games of musical chairs that had made noise within the military community.
At the beginning of March, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian forces, the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Thierry Burkhard, had admitted in the newspaper Le Monde to the differences of analysis between the French and the Americans on the question of a possible invasion of Ukraine. “The Americans said the Russians were going to attack, they were right. Our services rather thought that the conquest of Ukraine would have a monstrous cost and that the Russians had other options” to bring down President Volodymyr Zelensky, he admitted.
France “failing”
In fact, the Americans obtained very high quality intelligence on Russian preparations and had decided, several weeks before the invasion, to publish part of it in an attempt to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“France is doing the same. She is saying internally, within the community and to the rest of the world, that she has been failing,” he added. However, he considers that the DRM cannot be the only one to blame and that it suffers in particular from insufficient resources, an image problem and the organization of services in silos.
“US intelligence beat the bar and used intelligence as leverage. This marks the return of intelligence as a lever of political communication, ”explained in this regard to AFP Alexandre Papaemmanuel, professor at the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Paris and specialist in intelligence.
“It’s a bit easy to blame the DRM. We appreciate it when it is discreet and does not make waves and it intrigues when it begins to show that it exists”, regretted the researcher. However, he concluded, “the warning is for the whole community. You have to be efficient and meet all the threats”.
