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Vladimir Putin is considering naming a former bodyguard who once saved his life as his official successor, a Pulitzer-winning Russian journalist has predicted.
The dictator, 72, is regarded as mulling over a power-sharing agreement with Alexei Dyumin, 52, who once saved the Russian president from being eaten alive by a brown bear in keeping with legend.
But should the move go ahead, the pair will immediately draw up plans to organize Russians for one more war ‘because they don’t have anything else to supply the people’.
The chilling prediction comes from Roman Anin, exiled founding father of the independent Russian investigative website Necessary Stories.
Unlike many analysts, he believes Putin won’t rule until he drops dead but is preparing a handover under which he stays as a looming ‘father of the nation’ figure, his legacy and repressive rule intact.
‘The concept that Putin has no intention of leaving the presidency until his death is sort of popular amongst some Russian and Western analysts of Russian politics,’ said Anin.
‘Nevertheless, I find it difficult to agree with this for several reasons.
“Firstly, Putin understands the structure of his regime higher than anyone, by which power is split amongst several powerful clans of his friends, KGB colleagues and judo sparring partners.
‘Throughout his 25 years in power, these clans have continuously competed for influence, resources, and, most significantly, proximity to Putin himself, who has acted as an arbiter of their conflicts.’
Putin has seemed to be in higher health in recent months, versus the early days of the Ukraine invasion when there have been serious fears about his well being and videos appeared of his hands or feet shaking uncontrollably.
The Kremlin’s contingency plans all depend upon Putin remaining alive, Anin explains.
‘The older he gets and the longer he postpones the query of power transition, the upper the chance that considered one of the clans will try to seize control before another person does.
‘I feel Putin understands this perfectly well and doesn’t need a repeat of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny.’
Putin – who has ruled Russia as president or premier for greater than 1 / 4 of a century – remembers how Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin transferred power to him ‘and undoubtedly considers it a successful experience.’
The outstanding journalist said: ‘In my view, Putin has already outgrown the presidential office.
‘His propaganda, the church, his inner circle, and various other lackeys have spent years convincing him that he will not be only a president but the daddy of the nation, tasked with a sacred mission to avoid wasting Russia and restore its former greatness.
‘And as a deeply narcissistic individual, he has willingly embraced this notion.
‘Putin has three advisors — Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said about him initially of the war.’
Putin is eyeing such a father of the nation role by which he retreats from everyday administration but ‘hands down his will from his sacred pedestal, and his chosen executors implement it on the bottom’.
Because of this he arrange a State Council in 2020, a forum with powers over domestic and foreign policy which he’ll at some point lead after handing over to his chosen president.
Dyumin is the one one that meets Putin’s five conditions for a successor, said Anin.
‘It should be someone he absolutely trusts, someone who, upon receiving presidential powers, won’t betray his benefactor,’ he said.
‘Secondly, the successor must piously consider within the infallibility of his idol and unconditionally fulfil his will.
‘Thirdly, he mustn’t belong to an old, influential clan, as this might trigger factional conflicts.
‘Fourthly, he should have significant achievements in Putin’s eyes, each personally and for Russia (as Putin perceives it).’
Finally he “must embody the vision of Russia that Putin is shaping.
‘On condition that Russian children are actually indoctrinated with the leader’s ideology from preschool — where “heroes of the special military operation” tell stories of how they defeated “Banderites” in Ukraine — it is evident that Putin’s future Russia is envisioned as a militarised dictatorship steeped in propaganda.’
Anin is evident that ‘there is simply one person in Russia who meets all these criteria — Putin’s former bodyguard, Alexei Dyumin’.
As a bodyguard, he protected him within the Siberian taiga and made sure he ‘didn’t drown within the ocean’.
He ‘carried out essentially the most delicate assignments, and was able to sacrifice his life for him. Putin trusts him completely.’
Dyumin secretly led the Special Operations Forces which in 2014 occupied Crimea.
Dyumin – an ex-deputy defence minister holding the rank of colonel general, who has also served within the FSB security service and FSO protective service – likely personally led the evacuation of toppled Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych after the coup 11 years ago.
Quietly, he has been appointed as secretary of the Russian State Council, placing him in considered one of the highest-ranking positions throughout the Russian power structure.
Anin says his intelligence sources see Dyumin as ‘the leading candidate for succession.
‘Not only is he loyal to Putin, but as a colonel-general, he aligns way more closely with the present and future vision of Russia than other potential successors.
Anin dismisses the claims of three other candidates as Putin’s heir – Sergey Kiriyenko, Putin’s deputy chief of staff and a former premier, Boris Kovalchuk, chairman of the Accounts Chamber and son of Putin’s close associate and moneyman, Yury Kovalchuk, and Dmitry Patrushev, deputy premier and son of ex-FSB chief and security council secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, still a presidential aide.
‘In my view, none of those candidates ought to be seriously regarded as successors,’ he said.
All of them ‘lack Dyumin’s political weight and achievements in Putin’s eyes’.
None have Dyumin’s key experience of the safety services and defence ministry or motion man image.
He has also been groomed for administration, serving as governor of Tula region – key to Russia’s arms supplies – before Putin recalled him to work as an aide contained in the Kremlin.
The Patrushev clan is on the wane, said Anin, despite long links with Putin who’s unlikely handy the mantle to the kids of his pals.
‘Someone who starts wars doesn’t hand over power to “kinder surprises” or gilded youth,’ he said.
‘Together, they may prepare the country for a brand new major war — because they don’t have anything else to supply the people.’
Anin was in a team that in 2017 won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his or her work on the Panama Papers.
This uncovered some $2 billion in secret offshore deals and loans benefiting individuals inside Putin’s close circle.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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