Russian President Vladimir Putin's removal from the Kremlin is reportedly being discussed by the Russian elite, according to an incriminating new report.
Meduza, a Lativian news site, reports that sources close to the Kremlin talk of Putin being the source of dissatisfaction among those both for and against the war he launched in Ukraine.
Sources close to his administration reportedly said a future without the president is "increasingly being discussed" and talks about his successor are taking place "behind the scenes in the Kremlin."
Meduza cites senior business figures and members of the government as being discontented with Putin's decision to go ahead with the bloody war in Ukraine as well as the resulting scale of sanctions from the west to Russians.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, former president Dmitry Medvedev and first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko are all favourites, and allies of Putin, to replace the current Kremlin head.
The report says that while the discussions do not involve efforts to overthrow Putin "right now and a conspiracy.... being prepared", there is a desire, that in a "fairly foreseeable future he will not govern the state".
Meduza reports that one source says everyone in power knows that the only way Putin will depart his premiership is "only if his health deteriorates seriously." Thus, currently "the dissatisfaction of high-ranking officials is not manifested in anything - except for talking with each other".
The report follows the news that Putin survived an attempted assassination shortly after ordering the Ukraine invasion.
Major General Kyrylo Budanov, Kyiv’s head of military intelligence, told Ukrainska Pravda that "there were attempts to kill Putin."
He said the attempted hit “completely failed”, but “it really did happen about two months ago”.
Anders Åslund, a former senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, wrote in the Kyiv Post that something is seriously wrong in Moscow. He said this after Putin pledged to “purify” Russia of traitors and ordered the arrest of one of his most senior military commanders.
Åslund said: "The question is not whether Russia is in crisis. It is how severe the crisis is and whether it is enough to unsettle Putin”.
General Budanov also claimed that a coup to overthrow Putin is underway and that it would be impossible to stop it.
He said he was “optimistic” about Russia’s defeat and should it happen it would likely lead to Putin being removed from power.
This comes as the British Ministry of Defence claim that Russia has lost as many soldiers during the first three months of the war in Ukraine as during the ten-year Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
