A former CIA chief believes
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s time in power could be ended by a ‘secret
plot’ led by those in his inner circle. Daniel Hoffman, who was chief of the US
intelligence service’s Moscow station, claimed Mr. Putin’s trusted confidantes
would look to overthrow him if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fails.
Hoffman cautioned that such an
attempt to overthrow Mr. Putin would be ‘sudden, swift and potentially deadly’.
He said: “These guys that are going to do it are going to be so secret
about it, so that Putin doesn’t find them and kill them first.
He told The Daily Beast: “It’ll
happen all of a sudden. And he’ll be dead. Nobody’s gonna ask, ‘Hey Vladimir,
would you like to leave?’ No. It’s a fucking hammer to the head and he’s
dead.”
Speculation has continued over
Mr. Putin’s health and his future leadership. The Independent reports that
Mr. Hoffman pointed to three key figures to observe, should the President be
replaced.
He named defence minister
Sergei Shoigu, Nikolai Patrushev, the chief of Putin’s Security Council; and
Alexander Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s secretive intelligence agency the
FSB.
His comments came as Russia
attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the first time in weeks, with missiles
striking at least two residential buildings. The general prosecutor’s office
said preliminary information indicated one person was killed and four injured;
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people were taken to hospital with
injuries and a seven-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky said in his nightly video address that as a war that Moscow expected
to last five days moved into its fifth month, Russia “felt compelled to stage
such a missile show”.
He said the war was at a
difficult stage, “when we know that the enemy will not succeed, when we
understand that we can defend our country, but we don’t know how long it will
take, how many more attacks, losses and efforts there will be before we can see
that victory is already on our horizon”.
