Putin is terrified of being assassinated and is refusing to travel abroad after a drone attack near his luxury residence: reports
Contributor/Getty Images
- Drones targeting Moscow struck near Russian President Vladimir Putin's home, a report says.
- The Russian president is reportedly so scared of assassination he's gone into hiding.
- Putin has long shielded himself with elaborate layers of security, a former UK intelligence official told Insider.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought to project an image of invincibility, from notorious macho PR stunts to aggressively asserting Russia's role on the world stage.
But according to a report in Wednesday in The Daily Beast, citing Russian independent outlet Verstka, the Russian leader increasingly lives in fear for his life.
The report claims he is so concerned about assassination amid the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine that he is refusing to travel from the country.
The source, whom Verstka describes as a high-ranking Russian official, said the feeling "behind the scenes of the Kremlin" was that Putin was wary of traveling anywhere, and that "he has no sense of security."
According to the report, a series of recent events have heightened the Russian president's paranoia.
They include a March arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague on war crime allegations, and a series of mysterious drone attacks near Moscow.
There have also been allegations of a coup against him by his private army Wagner, and their chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The drone strikes Tuesday hit a wealthy suburb of the Russian capital which the Kremlin says were intercepted by air defense systems.
—max seddon (@maxseddon) May 30, 2023
According to the Moscow Times, citing a Russian government crash site list, the drones hit villages only a few kilometres from Novo-Ogaryovo, the site of the luxurious residence where Putin is believed to spend much of his time.
One source told the publication that Putin was in the residence at the time of the attack, and was woken by security officials.
Dmitry Medvedev, a Kremlin official and former president, said a drone attack on the Kremlin in May was a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Putin, a claim Ukraine denied.
Philip Ingram, a former British Military intelligence officer, told Insider that Putin had long encased himself in elaborate layers of security — and that his isolation appears to be getting worse.
The Russian president's paranoia became more accentuated during the COVID pandemic, when he lived in virtual isolation bubble. New fears of assassination mean he continues to live in isolation, surrounded by a few close aides, who feed him false information tailored to suit his prejudices.
MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
He said that security measures included the use of body doubles, while Putin's food was "tested and tested" for poisons before being served to him.
"His program is very carefully controlled," said Ingram. "His inner sanctum bodyguards are loyal to the point where they will do anything for him — they are psychologically tested for all of this sort of stuff — and it literally means anything for him."
Ingram's comments echo those of a former Kremlin security official, Gleb Karakulov, who fled Russia in opposition to the war in Ukraine in April.
In comments to a Russian opposition group in London reported by RFERL, he described Putin's increasing isolation and paranoia, saying he travels in an armored train, still insists on COVID-19 quarantine measures for those working closely with him, and won't even use the internet.
Putin's isolation, said Ingram, means he is only being presented distorted information by a group of close aides, warping his decision-making.
This, said Ingram, "means that he's in a position where, if he's only been presented with what he wants to hear, then his decision making will continually be more and more flawed." Ingram pointed to Putin's missteps in the invasion of Ukraine as an example of where he has exercised poor judgement.
Putin had been expected to attend summits in India this summer, as well as the BRICS summit in South Africa in August, but according to local reports his attendance remains in question amid concerns over the ICC arrest warrant.
Reuters reported that South African officials are even considering proposing moving the summit to China.
Ingram believes Putin would like to portray himself as an "international statesman" who asserts himself on the global stage. But fears of assassination and feelings of paranoia are beginning to destroy that image.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ZoQ6ILJ
No comments