Daniel Hoffman, a former high-ranking US CIA agent who once worked in Moscow, believes that Vladimir Putin could be assassinated at any moment, in a coup from his own inner circle.
Speaking to the Daily Beast website, quoted by the British newspaper Daily Mail, Hoffman defended that any attempt to remove Putin from power would have to be “quick and potentially lethal.” “Whoever is going to do this is going to keep everything secret, so that Putin doesn’t find out and kill him first. Everything will happen suddenly”, the former CIA agent theorizes. “Nobody is going to ask: ‘Hey, Vladimir, do you want to go out? No. It will be a hammer blow to the head and then he will be dead.” he told the Daily Beast.
Daniel Hoffman’s speculation goes further and even points to possible architects of the coup. This narrative suggests the names of Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defense, the head of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, and also the director of the Russian security services, Alexander Bortnikov. The former US intelligence agent adds that these three names will have leadership ambitions in a possible Putin succession.
The reference to the hammer on the head is not accidental either, since it refers to the death of the Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky, assassinated by order of Stalin. Trotsky was hit on the skull with a pickaxe, in a moment of inattention.
In recent weeks, Vladimir Putin’s health has also been the subject of speculation, with suggestions that Putin will have cancer. At least that was the information advanced by US news sources in early June, which pointed out that Putin had received treatment for advanced cancer in April.
Putin undergoing treatment for advanced cancer in April, says US intelligence report
Source: Observadora
