Vladimir Putin is taking drastic measures to protect his mouthpieces and sycophants in Kremlin-controlled media amid a spate of killings.
The 73-year-old Russian leader is said to be becoming increasingly paranoid about his power and personal safety amid sliding support for his war, which has failed to reach its objective and has become bogged down in a bloody stalemate.
His concern extends to his top brass and spin doctors, according to a new report from the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which says key figures are being encouraged to get security details.
It says Russian National Guard boss Viktor Zolotov told a national TV network’s leadership to do so, according to one of the network’s employees.
The source said that “practically all the TV bosses” had details from the National Guard, raising concerns that they were doubling as personal surveillance, Meduza reports.
A guest at a Moscow birthday party told Agentstvo that a well-known TV host turned up with a security detail, while a third source said that while such measures had been in place for some time, they have now been heightened.
Ilya Medvedev, the son of Russia’s Security Council chair Dmitry Medvedev, is also understood to have a personal security detail.
Meduza reports that Putin has bumped up the number of staff working for the FSO—Russia’s equivalent of the Secret Service—four times since the war began.
It comes following a slew of killings of high-ranking military officers accused of war crimes by Ukraine.
In late August, a car bomb in St. Petersburg killed 43-year-old lieutenant colonel Sergei Sechkov of the 332nd Independent Guards Red Banner Helicopter Regiment, whom Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence had accused of war crimes.
In early August, at least five people were killed and several injured at the birthday party of Russian Aerospace Forces commander-in-chief Alexander Chaiko at the Balzi Rossi restaurant in Moscow. He is thought to have been the target of the attack.
“Ukraine’s targeted killing program has been working against Russian officers who Kyiv accuses of war crimes, the lists of names are public–Ukraine is targeting not only generals and colonels, the network built by the Ukrainian special services is much broader,” Abbas Gallyamov, Vladimir Putin’s former speechwriter, previously told the Daily Beast.
Independent Russian investigations outlet Important Stories reported in May that Putin had stepped up his own security to an extent not seen before amid assassination fears.
It said that the Kremlin was on high alert, particularly over the possibility of weaponized drones being used to target him.
He is said to be concerned not only about Ukraine, but also about disgruntled members of Russia’s elite.
Bloomberg reports that Putin has become increasingly reliant on his Federal Security Service, which he has used to keep the elites under his thumb.
“The FSB has become the management company of the country,” Moscow-based political analyst Andrei Kolesnikov told Bloomberg. “The political administration, the Foreign Ministry, and the financial-economic bloc have been reduced to mere technical staff serving decisions made with a secret-service bias.”
