Savik Shuster gave Putin a disappointing forecast and spoke about the real atmosphere in the Kremlin
5 July 2024 22:00
There is a complete atmosphere of betrayal in the Kremlin, and loyalty to Putin is rapidly declining. This was stated by well-known Ukrainian journalist Savik Shuster in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Olesya Batsman.
In his statement on the situation in the Kremlin, Shuster quoted Bellingcat host and investigator Christo Grozev, reports [Kommersant].
“Khristo Grozev, whom we all know well, the host and investigator of Bellingcat (a website and community of investigative journalists specialising in fact-checking and open-source intelligence – ed.) says that there is now an atmosphere of betrayal in Kremlin and Kremlin-affiliated circles, a complete lack of loyalty,” Shuster said.
He stressed that both the military and oligarchs are leaking information, while Putin is placing his cronies everywhere in the government.
“The oligarchs are leaking information, the military is leaking information. Look at what’s happening in the Ministry of Defence! Probably, if Putin was still married to Lyudmila (Putin’s ex-wife – ed.), he would have put her there too. There is the son of Fradkov (a Russian politician – ed.), who has been appointed deputy defence minister, Putin’s niece, her husband – the whole family is in power,” Shuster said.
At the same time, according to the journalist, this will not help Putin avoid “punishment”: the total betrayal of the oligarchs and the military may indicate that Putin’s death is near.
“If they (Putin’s relatives and officials – ed.) start real repressions against the military, serious conflicts may begin. Putin is not Stalin, no one will let him have a 1937. As for Khristo Grozev, he says that in reality, loyalty to Putin is shrinking and shrinking. Imagine, Grozev says, a lot of information is being leaked now. And this could mean that Putin’s death is near. Not of the regime, but of Putin,” Shuster said.
Recently, analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Putin may begin training possible successors to his regime from among his children and relatives, as well as the children of other high-ranking officials.
In particular, he has already dismissed four deputy defence ministers – Nikolai Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov, Tatyana Shevtsova and Army General Pavel Popov – and replaced them with Anna Tsivilova and Pavel Fradkov, as well as First Deputy Defence Minister Leonid Gornin.
Anna Tsivilova is Putin’s second cousin, the wife of Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilov and the head of the Kremlin-initiated Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation.
Pavel Fradkov is the son of Mikhail Fradkov, a former Russian prime minister who also served as director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. Fradkov’s brother, Pyotr Fradkov, is the head of the state-owned Promsvyazbank.
It was Tsivilova and Fradkov who took part in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, along with Putin’s daughters and the children of other high-ranking officials.
According to ISW, it was at the forum that Putin tried to present his children and the children of officials from his inner circle as likely successors to influential leaders in the Russian government.
