Vladimir Putin’s former ally has claimed that the Russian leader will rather nominate his chosen successor this year rather than risk being toppled as the Russian President’s popularity continues to plummet amid a series of military defeats in Ukraine.
The Russian leader will seek to give up power to a technocrat successor who could negotiate an end to the war with Ukraine and the West, and probably not fight the 2024 election, Abbas Gallyamov, Putin’s former speechwriter told Khodorkovsky Live You Tube channel.
Gallyamov claimed the despot will likely nominate a ‘trusted underling’ as president — like the Mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, or his deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak.
According to him, Putin’s circle no longer see him as a ‘guarantor of stability’ and are alarmed by the rise of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the well-armed Wagner private army, which is so far loyal to the Kremlin but could turn on an elite seen as failing in the war.
They fear being slaughtered with Prigozhin’s sledgehammer — the extrajudicial punishment given to his jail convict soldiers who refuse to fight or seek to defect to Ukraine, he said.
Meanwhile, one of Prigozhin’s former Wagner mercenaries, who changed sides in the Ukraine war, Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, had his head taped to a brick wall and was beaten to death with a sledgehammer in November when he was captured by his former colleagues.
Prigozhin praised the defector’s execution and said that a ‘dog receives a dog’s death’ in response to the video of Nuzhin being bludgeoned to death.
Since Putin’s war began, his allies like Prigozhin and Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov have begun jockeying for power and prominence, suggesting that they could one day want to supplant him.
Gallyamov said, ‘If Putin seeks nomination for yet another term – he has been president or PM since 1999 – he ‘might really slip and fail to be elected’.
Gallyamov warned: ‘He would try to rig the elections, [but it is] fraught with revolution. This is far too big of a risk for the system.
‘He is likely to nominate a trusted underling as president – like Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin, or premier Mikhail Mishustin, or his uber-loyist deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak, Gallyamov said.
‘Such people can really win the election,’ he said.
‘Yes, then they will have to negotiate with Ukraine, with the West, and break the deadlock within the system.
‘Yet ‘for Putin, this is a good option, compared with Gaddafi,’ he said.
‘At least Putin will have guarantees of personal security,’ Daily Mail reported.
Current laws mean he would be a ‘senator for life’.
‘He will get the opportunity to end his days calmly in [his] palace in Gelendzhik,’ Gallyamov said.
