VLADIMIR Putin plans to kill a mercenary warlord who was plotting a coup against him with army chief ‘General Armageddon’, it’s claimed.
The two plotted to put themselves in key positions of power, along with another warlord, to control the tyrant but now it’s alleged vengeful Putin now plans retribution.
EPAVladimir Putin was facing a coup from his inner circle[/caption]
ReutersYevgeny Prighozin is the head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries[/caption]
APSergey Surovikin is nicknamed General Armageddon[/caption]
ReutersChechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov was also in on the plot[/caption]
Details of the coup have been leaked to Russian human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin, who said the initial plotting began back in September.
It began around the time General Sergey Surovikin became the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, a position he held until last month.
Also plotting was Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, and Ramzan Kadyrov notoriously brutal leader of the Chechen region, whose troops have been fighting in Ukraine.
Osechkin is the founder of Gulagu, which highlights abuses in Russian prisons, and also claims to have sources within the Kremlin and security services who have leaked him information.
He says Surovikin wanted to the Defence Minister, Prigozhin the head of the FSB security service and Kadyrov – notorious for inflicting medieval torture on opponents – the National Guard.
Prigozhin would use the army of convicts he’s recruited to achieve a breakthrough in the war to bolster his own power, he alleges.
The three would then use their positions to control Putin and direct the war, he says his sources have told him.
Prigozhin also wanted to control the FSB because he has “no political future in unless he’s able to destroy” the spy agency’s files on his criminal past.
The plot fizzled out when Prigozhin “unmasked himself” by publicly criticising the failure to protect the Kerch bridge from attack.
Now a vengeful Putin is plotting to have him killed, claims Osechkin.
He said “judging by the methods Putin uses, a purge is most likely awaiting him” and “I have no basis to think Prigozhin will survive until the end of this year”.
“He knows too much, he is complicit in too much and for Putin it is very important that he disappears forever and takes those secrets with him,” said Osechkin.
It comes as the Kremlin has now issued a directive to local media not to praise Surovikin and only mention him in “neutral” terms, a document leaked by former Russian MP Alexander Nevzorov shows,.
Prigozhin is not to be quoted and his recruitment of prisoners is not to be reported on, say the instructions.
The 56-year-old Surovikin cultivates a ruthless hardman image to go along with his nickname – sporting a shaved head and stern scowl.
He earned his chilling nickname for his bloody role in Syria when forces he commanded killed thousands of civilians.
But behind his image as a hard-nosed general is a “crook and a hustler” who has lined his bulging pockets with “blood-soaked” money, Russian anti-corruption campaigners say.
Former hotdog salesman Prigozhin has boasted he is turning thousands of convicted conscripts into cannibals.
Some of Russia’s most notorious criminals have signed up to join the Wagner group, in return for pardons.
Prigozhin, a former inmate himself, after assaulting and robbing a woman, has told recruits that they will become war heroes or killed as deserters.
A video released this week appears to show an execution with a sledgehammer of a Wagner mercenary – the second such footage to emerge.
