Fearing Assassination, Putin Retreats to His Bunkers

I’ve written recently about Russia’s crackdown on social media. Many Russians were used to using Telegram, a messaging app that supposedly couldn’t be hacked, but in the past few months Putin’s regime decided that was a problem and gradually shut down servers until Telegram became non-operational. The government encouraged people to switch over to a new Kremlin controlled messaging app called MAX which everyone assumes is being monitored by the FSB.

But it turns out this paranoia goes beyond social media. Putin himself seems to fear he’ll be a target, either of Ukraine or possibly of someone looking to carry out a coup. So he has stopped making as many public appearances and spends more time in underground bunkers. 

In recent months, Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO), which guards top officials, has sharply tightened security around the president. He spends more time in underground bunkers micromanaging the war and has grown more detached from civilian affairs, according to people who know Putin in Moscow and a person close to European intelligence services…

“The shock of Ukraine’s drone Operation Spiderweb is still there,” a person familiar with Putin told the FT. Last year, Ukrainian drones attacked Russian airfields beyond the Arctic Circle. Security fears were additionally fuelled by the US’s seizure of Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro in January, said a second person also familiar with the president.

In response, the FSO has further tightened stringent security measures. Putin has cut down his visits and security checks for people meeting him in person have been tightened further, said the person close to European intelligence.

The president and his family have stopped going to their residences in the Moscow region and in north-western Valdai. Putin is spending more time in bunkers, including in the Krasnodar area in southern Russia, working from there for several weeks, while state media use recorded footage to project normality.

It’s not just Putin. Anyone who works with him has added security including the installation of cameras in their homes.

Cooks, bodyguards and photographers who work with the president are also banned from traveling on public transport, the dossier says. Visitors to the Kremlin chief must be screened twice, and those working close to him can only use phones without internet access, it adds.

Some of the measures were put in place in recent months in the wake of the killing of a top general in December, which sparked a dispute in the top ranks of Russia’s security establishment, the report says. They suggest mounting unease within the Kremlin as it faces growing problems at home and abroad, including economic woes, increasing signs of dissent and setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine.

One person Putin is apparently worried about is Sergei Shoigu, the man who served as Minister of Defense at the time that Yevgeny Prigozhin made his march on Moscow.

The sidelined former defense minister, currently serving as secretary of the Security Council, “is associated with the risk of a coup, as he retains significant influence within the military high command”, the report says.

It adds the arrest of Shoigu’s former deputy and close associate, Ruslan Tsalikov, on March 5 is considered “a breach of the tacit protection agreements among elites, weakening Shoigu and increasing the likelihood that he himself could become the target of a judicial investigation.”

Russia’s investigative committee said in a March statement that Tsalikov had been arrested on charges related to embezzlement, money laundering and bribery. Reports of corruption in the military elite are frequent but have multiplied since the Ukraine invasion began.

CNN notes that all of this comes from a foreign intelligence service which seems to have intentionally leaked it to the media. They view that as an attempt to capitalize on Putin’s paranoia.

The report does not provide evidence to support the claims against Shoigu, who was formerly seen as very close to Putin, and a bid to unseat the Russian president would mark a stark reversal in allegiance. Given its release may be aimed at destabilizing the Kremlin, it is notable that the European intelligence service would at the same time effectively forewarn the Kremlin of a possible coup.

In other words, there’s probably a reason this was released and playing into Putin’s already existing paranoia may be the reason. Still, the crackdown on social media this year in Russia is undeniable. Even Russian influencers have publicly complained about that and warned that Putin should ease up before people get tired of being afriad.

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians. 

Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.