A former top agent at the British Secret Service agency MI6 has said that he believes Vladimir Putin will be shipped off to a sanitorium by the end of the year following a downturn in his health and the disastrous invasion of Ukraine.
Sir Richard Dearlove made the claims on the One Decision podcast and said that the goal from those beneath Putin would be to remove him from office without officially carrying out a coup.
There have been ongoing rumours surrounding Putin's physical and mental health, including that he is suffering from cancer and Parkinson's disease or from early-stage dementia. Putin's appearance has changed clearly over recent years and several videos appear to show him shaking. During Covid-19 he has maintained extreme social distancing measures, which some believe is an indication that he is undergoing chemotherapy and therefore has a compromised immune system.
Dearlove said:
"I think he'll be gone by 2023 - but probably into the sanatorium, from which he will not emerge as the leader of Russia. I'm not saying he won't emerge from the sanatorium, but he won't emerge as the leader of Russia any longer. That's a way to sort of move things on without a coup."
"I don't think public opinion [on the war and Putin] is really shifting yet in Russia yet but I think expert opinion may be beginning to shift. What I'm saying over the next year, 18 months maybe something, it is going to break apart. There is no question that this Ukrainian venture is a catastrophe. The economy is in a mess, the sanctions are really going to start biting over the next three to six months, there will be very high inflation and over and above that, militarily it is a complete fiasco."
Speaking previously, Dearlove had said in regards to Putin's health:
"He's constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors. Meetings of the security council that are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour are actually broken up into several sections, he goes out and receives some kind of medical treatment between those sections. So, clearly, he is seriously ill - how terminal or incurable it is not clear, we can't be entirely sure. But it's certainly having a very serious impact on the governance of Russia at the moment."
[Based on reporting by: Mirror]
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