Several attempts made to assassinate Russian president Putin, says Ukrainian spy chief

Several attempts have been made to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Ukrainian spy chief Kyrylo Budanov.

In recent years, there have been unconfirmed reports of plots against Putin, but Budanov did not cite any particular incident or reveal what he was basing his remarks on.

In an interview with the New Ukraine website, Budanov further said that the consensus around Putin’s leadership is falling and he no longer enjoys the unquestioned support of the Russian elite.

Putin has been at the helm of Russia since 1999 when he first became the prime minister of the country. Since then, he has continuously run the country and has strengthened his position by systemically removing political opponents and dissidents and clamping down on a free press. The support of the elite oligarchs, the big businesspersons and government leaders, is crucial to Putin’s rule and there have been indications in recent years that a section of oligarchs as well as government agencies were indeed not supportive of Putin.

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Budanov did not specify whether the Ukrainian government was involved in these purported assassination attempts on Putin.

‘Russian society will collapse when Putin dies’

Budanov said that while Putin no longer has the unquestioned support of everyone, the Russian are afraid of losing him over the chaos that would be there in case of his death as he has been in power for so long.

When Putin dies, the Russians will respond like they did after the death of Soviet Union’s leader Josef Stalin in 1953 when “their whole world collapsed” and when “they didn’t know how to go on living”, according to Budanov.

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Following Budanov’s remarks, the Russian government said that the threat from Ukraine to Putin was “obvious” and that the president’s safety would need to protected, according to German news agency dpa.

Have there been assassination attempts on Putin?

In May 2023, when drones attacked the Russian presidential palace, Russia accused of Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin.

At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had denied there was any attempt on Putin’s life. He had said, “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We’re defending our villages and cities.”

Over the years, there have been several attempts on Putin’s life, according to reports.

In 2012, Russian and Ukrainian authorities jointly thwarted an attempt on Putin’s life after the presidential elections, according to Russian state media.

In 2003, the British police thwarted an assassination attempt on Putin by two rogue intelligence personnel during a visit to London, according to a report by The Sunday Times at the time. The report also said that the two personnel were in touch by FSB, the Russian intelligence and security service which succeeded the infamous KGB of Soviet Union.

In June 2023, in the biggest blow to Putin’s leadership in more than two decades, the private military company Wagner Group mutinied and marched to Moscow. The militia captured a regional Russian military headquarters, fought with the Russian military, and had vowed to remove the-then Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov. The mutiny was seen as being fuelled by elements within the Russian regime opposed to Putin as it was said that an action as drastic as an outright mutiny and a march on Moscow could not happen without insiders’ nod.

In the first two years of the Ukraine War, a string of mysterious deaths of Russian oligarchs were also reported. These deaths were said to be potentially related to a power struggle within Russia.