New Delhi: A group of influential Russian business and political elite have drawn a blueprint to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, according to the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.
The goal of this group is to remove Putin from power as soon as possible and restore economic ties with the West, destroyed by the war in Ukraine.
“A part of Russia’s political elite sees Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov as Putin’s successor. It is Bortnikov who has recently fallen out of favour with the Russian dictator. The official reason for the FSS leader’s downfall is fatal miscalculations in the war against Ukraine”, Ukraine intelligence has said, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.
It was Bortnikov and his department who were responsible for analysing the views of the Ukrainian population and the capacity of the Ukrainian army.
It is known that Bortnikov and some other influential members of the Russian elite are considering various options for removing Putin from power.
In particular, poisoning, sudden illness, or other “accident” is not excluded, the intelligence said.
It is possible that these processes are connected with the recent “leak” of the location of Chechen units in the north of Kiev.”
According to intelligence, this leak may have been intended both to weaken Kadyrov’s influence and as an attempt to establish cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities in advance, bypassing the current leadership of the Russian Federation, the report said.