Russian President Vladimir Putin's former spin doctor, who turned into one of his biggest critics, has died in Moscow, Russia.
Gleb Pavlovsky is understood to have suffered a stroke ten days ago and died on Sunday “after a long and serious illness" in a hospice following treatment in the capital's Botkin hospital.
The 71-year-old had issued warnings against the war and questioned the dictator’s state of mind.
Pavlovsky was fired in 2011 after he warned against power-hungry Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin for a third term and was also involved in Viktor Yanukovych's failed 2004 presidential campaign in Ukraine.
On the invasion of Ukraine, Pavlovsky said: "The previous Putin would not have done this. He was a very sane-thinking person.
“But this has all vanished now. He has an obsession with Ukraine that he didn't previously have. He is reacting now to the pictures in his own head.”
Pavlovsky switched from a Kremlin insider and implementer of Putin’s plans to a staunch critic.
In 2012, he participated in the opposition "March of Millions" on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow and dismissed elections held in Russia in 2021 as the “most shameful” in the country’s history.
He warned in advance of the war that it would be a terrible mistake and a "great blow" for Russia.
Two months before Putin’s invasion, he said: “Ukraine is a bad place for a war… It will be a people’s war on [Kyiv's] part.”
On the day it was declared he said: “We cannot win it [this war].”
Speaking of the price paid by Russians for Putin’s mistake, he said: “We absolutely do not need additional territories that need to be maintained in a police regime, on the one hand, and fed, on the other.”
He claimed Putin used to be "inclined then to discuss things with advisers and he was more open to alternative opinions”.
But lately, Putin's “only contact with the world is through his inner circle. He can't stand it if any of them have their own stance. For him, this would be a catastrophe”.
Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Pavlovsky told the Financial Times: “Putin’s used to being lucky. That’s very dangerous for a gambler because he starts believing fate is on his side. When you play Russian roulette, you feel that God is on your side until the shot rings out.”
He also told the publication that Putin is "even more isolated than Stalin."
Before his ties with Putin turned sour, he was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland in 2008 and was awarded with thanks from the President of the Russian Federation in 1996, 1999 and 2011.
