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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

Vladimir Putin's 'successor' who once saved him from bear sets up drone training school

Vladimir Putin Alexei Dyumin Drone Viktor Yanukovych Tula Russia Crimea Kyiv

A Russian governor being ‘groomed as successor’ to Vladimir Putin has launched a drone training school for Kremlin troops and secret services operatives to target Ukraine.

Alexei Dyumin, 50, is a former Putin bodyguard and ex-deputy defence minister who secretly led the 2014 operation to spring toppled Kyiv president Viktor Yanukovych from Crimea and bring him to Russia.

He won Putin’s trust by saving the dictator from ‘certain death’ by scaring away a bear which tried to break into a remote presidential mountain residence.

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