There have been several attempts to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov on Saturday.
“But as you can see, they were unsuccessful,” Budanov told New Voice, a Ukrainian website. The general did not say what his statement was based on. He also did not say whether his or other Ukrainian intelligence services might be involved in the plans.
Budanov has made provocative comments in the past as a form of psychological warfare. The Kremlin responded, with its spokesman Dmitri Peskov making it clear that the president’s security would be protected. “The threat from the Kiev regime is obvious,” he told the state-run TASS news agency in Moscow.
Budanov also said that Putin is no longer a compromise figure accepted by the entire Russian elite, but, as he has been in power for more than 20 years, Russians are afraid of losing him.
He said that when Putin dies, he imagines the response would be similar to the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1953. For people in the Soviet Union at that time, “the whole world collapsed, they didn’t know how to go on living.” “, said Budanov.
Little is known about attempted attacks on Putin during his long period in power. An assassination attempt by men from the Caucasus failed in May 2022, shortly after Putin ordered the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Budanov said. There is no evidence of this.
