Putin assassination

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought to project an image of invincibility through his notorious macho PR stunts and aggressive assertions of Russia's role on the world stage. But according to a Wednesday report in The report said he was so concerned about being assassinated amid the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine that he was refusing to travel from the country. The source — whom Verstka described 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, recent events had heightened the Russian president's paranoia. They included a March arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague on allegations of war crimes and a series of mysterious drone attacks near Moscow. There have also been allegations of a coup against him by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, and their chief, The drone strikes on Tuesday hit a wealthy Russian capital suburb which the Kremlin said were intercepted by air-defense systems. Dmitry Medvedev, a Kremlin official and former Russian president, said a drone attack on the Kremlin in May was a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Putin, which 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 appeared to be getting worse. He said that the Russian...

Unverified The attack will likely have a “rally around the flag” effect in Russia, leading some to speculate it may be a “false flag” operation staged by the Kremlin to bolster support ahead of Victory Day on May 9, an annual holiday to celebrate the Soviet defeat of Nazis in WWII. “It looks to me like Putin and his handlers are constructing a fake provocation with this so-called terrorist attack that Russia can use as an excuse to rain down even more pain and suffering on the Ukrainian people or possibly use to justify an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” said Beth Knobel, a former CBS bureau chief in Moscow and now a communications professor at Fordham University. “Ukraine has nothing to gain by inflaming Russia further with an assassination attempt on President Putin,” she added, noting that the claim of an assassination attempt was far-fetched, given Putin is widely known to reside at a complex outside Moscow. Analysts have pointed out that there’s no independent verification of the supposed attack. There’s also scrutiny over why Moscow didn’t report the incident until hours later or why the videos of it were not released for some time. Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at a University of California, San Diego, who studies the conduct of war, also said he believes Russians were behind the attack, whether or not it was carried out with Putin’s knowledge. He said it would help the Kremlin’s recruitment drive across the cou...

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine falters, reports about the blame game in the Kremlin and even efforts to depose or otherwise remove Russian President Vladimir Putin from power are becoming more common. The Russian leader has often been the subject of speculation, whether it is over his purported The latest bit of hearsay has made waves in the British tabloids on Monday, but are there any hard facts behind it? Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on September 14, 2022. The General SVR Telegram account has claimed that there was an attempted assassination on Putin while he was being driven in his motorcade. GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/Getty Images The Claim Several English-language outlets, including the Mirror and the Daily Mail, published articles claiming that The reports cited an anonymous Telegram channel, but offered little other evidence in support of the story. The source was a post on the Russian-language account of General SVR, which has more than 315,000 followers, and purports to have sources inside the Russian intelligence community. The post, It said that, a few miles away from his residence, the first escort car was blocked by an ambulance, which the second car drove around without stopping. Then there was a "loud bang" by the front left wheel in the third car, which Putin was allegedly in, "followed by heavy smoke." Read more • Fact Check: Was Vladimir Putin in Moscow Photo With Reagan and Gorbachev? • Fact Check: Donald Trump May Face Same Charges ...

• • • • As a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer specializing in Russia, I often am asked why the United States doesn’t just take out Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president is clearly a bad dude. So far, in his barbaric 10-month war against Ukraine, Putin’s forces have bombed maternity wards, tortured civilians andabducted their children, shipping them to Russia by force. His missiles have pounded vital infrastructure, leaving Ukrainians without electricity or drinking water amid freezing winter temperatures. His illegal invasion has also led to a global energy crisis and exacerbated skyrocketing inflation across the West. US leaders watch the conflict nervously, worried it could For many, getting rid of Putin seems like an easy fix. But while the United States maintains a doctrine — albeit a secret one — that permits, in exceptional cases, targeted killings of foreigners, Washington will almost certainly not order the assassination of Russia’s strongman. Here are three reasons why. Long before he ruled Russia, Putin spent many years in the KGB, a fertile training ground for anti-assassination training. Osama Bin Laden is among a handful of former al Qaeda chiefs who’ve been assassinated by the US as part of a top-secret counter-terror operation. Sygma via Getty Images First, the US Constitution It is true that the Central Intelligence Agency has targeted foreign leaders for death in the past. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, the CIA Former P...

Vladimir Putin’s limousine was allegedly attacked in a possible assassination attempt as the war in Ukraine rages on, Kremlin insiders claim. The Russian tyrant’s car was hit by a “loud bang” on its left front wheel which was followed by “heavy smoke”, sources close to the leader allege. It is reported some of his bodyguards have vanished amid claims secret information about the 69-year-old’s movements were compromised, according to the General GVR Telegram channel. Stream more world news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? The anti-Kremlin channel claims Putin was travelling back to his official residence in a decoy motorcade amid security fears. The “backup” convoy was made up of five armoured cars, with Putin in the third, it is claimed. It is unclear when the potential assassination attempt took place and it has not been immediately possible to verify the claim. The channel said: “On the way to the residence, a few kilometres away, the first escort car was blocked by an ambulance, [and] the second escort car drove around without stopping [due to the] sudden obstacle, and during the detour of the obstacle.” In Putin’s car “a loud bang sounded from the left front wheel followed by heavy smoke”, it is claimed. The SVR General alleged Putin’s car, “despite the problems with control”, made its way out of the attack scene to reach the safety of the residence. It added: “Subsequently, the body of a man was found driving [the] ambulance, wh...

The U.S. had no notice if there was a drone attack against the Kremlin by Ukraine, three U.S. officials said. Two of the officials expressed skepticism that a drone could get that close to the Kremlin given that so many air defense systems protect Russia. An attack on the heart of Moscow, even if it is foiled, would be a dramatic illustration of Russian vulnerability ahead of an expected “We view these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the President, carried out ahead of Victory Day,” the statement said, referring to the celebration next Tuesday of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. “Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate,” it added. Videos circulated widely on social media Wednesday showing an object exploding over the Kremlin, the building’s roof on fire and smoke rising from the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied his country was behind the attack. “We are not attacking Putin or Moscow,” he said at a news conference in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where he was meeting the prime ministers of four Nordic nations. “We are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and cities,” he said. “We do not have enough weapons even for this. That is why we do not use them elsewhere. We have a deficit. We cannot use everything and everywhere.” The Kremlin said Putin was not in the building at the time of the alleged attack. Mikhail K...

• Individuals linked to Putin's government have died in violent or mysterious circumstances. • Putin, a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB and ex-head of the FSB, has been suspected of assassinating critics. • Here's a list of people who have been critical of Putin and the Russian president is suspected of assassinating: Pavel Antov - December 2022 Russian tycoon The politician and millionaire criticized Putin's war with Ukraine following a missile attack in Kyiv earlier this year on WhatsApp but quickly deleted the message and claimed that someone else wrote it, the "Our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist Pavel Antov passed away," Vice Speaker of the Regional Parliament Vyacheslav Kartukhin said on his Ravil Maganov - September 2022 Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oil Company Lukoil Ravil Maganov (R) pose for a photo during an awarding ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 21, 2019. Photo by MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov had been openly critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Maganov, similar to Antov, died mysteriously by falling out the window of a Moscow hospital in September, the outlet reported. However, a now-deleted statement from Lukoil said that the 67-year-old died "following serious illness." Dan Rapoport- August 2022 Businessman Dan Rapoport publicly condemned the Russia-Ukraine war on social media multiple times and emphasized his supp...

Roman Emperor Domitian is remembered for only one joke. “It’s a terrible thing to be an emperor,” Domitian said, “because everything thinks your paranoia about being assassinated is groundless—until you’re actually murdered!” Soon after Domitian was assassinated. Extreme vigilance is the essential mood of tyranny, which must inhabit that condition not just first because it is indeed in danger of overthrow and surrounded by enemies but also because it requires its people to be fearful and isolated, therefore conditioned for extreme solutions. President Vladimir Putin is living proof of this conundrum. The recent It is a cliché of the cliché-ridden Western press on Putin—and his predecessors Stalin, Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible—that they are paranoid to the extent of madness. It is a cliché that ignores and misunderstands the nature of dictatorship particularly in Russia. All absolute systems in world history depend on coercion to crush opposition and maintain power, thereby creating internal enemies who can only use violence to overthrow the ruler. All such systems deploy war and xenophobia to inspire and control their own people which creates another legion of enemies. The Western press always emphasizes the omnipotence of the autocrat in a system without limits without seeing that a system without limits means the leader exists in a permanent state of carnivorous chaos without any real or lasting security. Systems without clear rules of succession grant enormous pow...

8 His limousine was travelling in a 'decoy' motorcade when smoke was seen and a bang heard Credit: East2west News "A loud bang sounded from the left front wheel followed by heavy smoke," the source claimed. Putin's limo was driven to safety with the president unharmed - but there have been multiple arrests from his security service, it is claimed. "A narrow circle of people knew about the movement of the president in this cortege, and all of them were from the presidential security service," they added. WAR CRIMINALS Desperate Putin recruits ‘suicide squads’ of gulag inmates for war in Ukraine The same source claims in a separate post that Putin had ordered his glamorous lover Alina Kabaeva, 39, a former Olympic gymnast, to have an abortion, leading to a "worsening" of their relations. This news comes amid a reported revolt among many of Putin's allies following the continued failure to defeat Ukraine. Putin was reportedly travelling back to his official residence at the time in a decoy motorcade amid his increasing paranoia, according to the anti-Kremlin Telegram channel General SVR. The backup convoy was made up of five armoured cars, with Putin in the third. NO SEX, PLEASE Huge pop star goes celibate - 23 years after boasting about sex life in hit It is unclear when the potential assassination attempt took place and it has not been immediately possible to verify the claim. This comes after he survived a further attempt on his life earlier this year. The second most rece...