Putin is making low-level tactical decisions and 'micromanaging' Russia's war efforts, according to reports

According to media reports, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has become more involved in low-level military strategy.

Western military sources told The Guardian and The Sunday Times that the Russian president is making decisions.

One official used an analogy to describe the situation to The Times, saying that Jeff Bezos doesn't deliver your parcels, he makes strategy decisions.

Sources told the outlets that Putin is playing a significant role in determining troop movements in the Donbas, where the Russians have suffered several setbacks in the last week.

The officials said that Putin is still working with Gen. Valery Gerasimov despite Ukrainian claims that the senior general had been suspended.

The Pentagon and the UK Ministry of Defence did not respond to Insider's request for comment on the reports.

Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, said that Western officials suggesting that Putin is micromanaging Russia's war efforts would be supported by precedent.

In how the Russian military fights, having top-level people get involved at the tactical level is not out of the ordinary.

It is common for general officers in Russia's armed forces to accompany their troops directly onto the battlefield. Gerasimov did it in Izyum earlier this month. Sending top-level officials to the front line is one of the reasons why Russia has lost so many generals.

Major Russian military decisions have to be run up the chain of command before they can be implemented. By the time approval is granted, the situation on the ground may be different.

It is not a good way to fight wars.

Critical knowledge that is lost on a political leader far from the front is one of the reasons why soldiers in Western armies are trained to spot opportunities to carry out their orders.

Two days before Putin launched his invasion at the end of February, the president delivered a speech in which he denied the existence of the country and claimed that it was part of Russia.

In the months since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine, it has become clear that Putin's personal vendetta against Ukraine and its people played an outsized role in the beginning of war.

The whole thing was planned by a small group with Putin at its center.

Military sources believe that Putin's heavy hand in military operations could be to blame for Russia's failures. Russia's struggles can be traced back even further, according to Miles.

The president's low-level decision-making is probably contributing to tactical failures now, but more importantly, it is the cause of the massive strategic failure in week one.