Russian ex-minister: Kremlin coup could oust leader as tensions grow over invasion
Vladimir Putin could be ousted in a Kremlin coup as tensions in the country grow over Ukraine, according to a Russian ex-minister.
Andrei Kozyrev, who was Boris Yeltsin’s leading diplomat, believes Putin could soon be removed with an “armed escort either to the grave or to retirement” due to anger over Russian forces being bogged down in Ukraine and the country isolated due to sanctions.
He said: “Many Russian tsars were killed. Many were dismissed one way or the other. Even in the Soviet Union, there were ways; Stalin was said to have been poisoned, Khrushchev was just escorted out of the Kremlin.
“With Putin, I very much expect there to be resistance growing and discontent growing that will be resolved one way or another. I don’t know which way but Russian history is full of unexpected outcomes.”
Russian state television pundit Karen Shakhnazarov said that public opinion was also changing.
He said: “People are shocked by the masses of refugees, the humanitarian catastrophe.
“People start to imagine themselves in their place. It’s starting to affect them.”
A Church of England priest in Moscow claimed that some Russians were feeling “crushed” by what has been done in their name.
The Rev Canon Malcolm Rogers, in charge of St Andrew’s Anglican church in central Moscow, spoke after Russia passed a new law that citizens who spread “fake” information about the military could be jailed for up to 15 years.
He said: “The young Russian crushed by what has been done in his name; the mother sick with anxiety for her son who has been sent to Ukraine; the foreign student unsure whether to leave or how to leave; the person who has been named on the wrong sort of list; the older person who fears a return to the isolation and economic depression of the 1980s.”
Meanwhile, a Russian airline pilot used his pre-flight announcement to denounce the war on Ukraine, describing it as “a crime” and saying that the Kremlin should “stop immediately”.
The pilot, who appears in video shared on social media, was applauded by passengers.