Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly paranoid and fears that someone in his inner circle will poison him, a new report says.
According to Daily Beast contributing editor Craig Copetas, Putin has people taste his meals before he eats it, and he fired his whole personal staff of 1,000 people last month.
He then replaced them immediately.
“Laundresses, secretaries, cooks — to a whole new group of people. The assessment from the intelligence community is that he’s scared,” Copetas said.
According to Copetas, poison is the preferred method of assassination in Russia.
Putin should know in 2006, his men were suspected of poisoning a pot of tea with radioactive poison, killing outspoken critic Alexander Litvinenko.
In 2018, police allege Putin’s thugs poured lethal poison on former spy Sergei Skripal’s home door. He and his daughter escaped death by a hair’s breadth.
Putin also allegedly ordered the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He survived, but is now languishing in a Russian jail.
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