Roughly 1000 members of personal staff were replaced by Vladimir Putin last month over poisoning fears, according to reports.
Bodyguards, cooks, launderers and secretaries were among those sacked, reports the Daily Beast which cited a Russian government source.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has been widely condemned by countries across the world - with heavy sanctions placed on Putin and his network of oligarchs.
US and Western officials repeatedly warned in February Russia was preparing to stage a pretext against Ukraine after troops gathered along their shared border. The Kremlin always denied invasion plans... until they launched their illegal attack.
According to an operative for France's General Directorate for External Security who claimed it "is on every intelligence agency's design table."
In the US, meanwhile, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham went further still and called for the Russian president's assassination which was condemned by Republicans
Graham compared Putin to Hitler earlier this months and said: "The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,"
He added: "You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service."
But he told The Daily Beast the task would not be something which would be done by foreign government.
"The attempt will be from within the Kremlin," he said. "Russian intelligence is likely the only one left that deploys poison as a default" to assassinate people.
Poisoning have been previously linked to Kremlin critics with the nerve agent Novichok being employed as a means of disposing of outspoken figures such as Alexei Navalny who was poisoned in August 2020.
Putin was then accused of carrying out the attack, but there have also been instances closer to home in Salisbury where double agents were poisoned with the same Soviet-era substance.
The Mirror told in May last year how a detective left fighting for life by the Novichok attack in Salisbury is suing his police force.
Det Sgt Nick Bailey was medically retired after he was contaminated with the nerve agent at the home of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
Lawyers acting for the former officer lodged the case against the Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Kier Pritchard at the High Court earlier this month.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were were identified by Britain as being behind the attempted murder of double agent Skripal, 69, and daughter Yulia, 33, by smearing Novichok on the door handle of their home in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
