Russian President Vladimir Putin and high-ranking military officials are said to be controlling the Russian invasion of Ukraine from remote shelters.
According to the latest findings, the Russian president is not currently in Moscow, but has hidden in a luxury bunker more than 2,800 kilometers from the capital. Its Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose prolonged absence has recently fueled speculation, has reportedly retreated to a high-security bunker, the Daily Mail reports, citing Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grosev. Grozew is also the Russian head of the “Bellingcat” group, which operates investigative journalism around the world.
Read more: Day 35 of the war in Ukraine – the live ticker
Schoigu’s daughter traveling
Flight data from Russian state aircraft indicates that Shoigu was in a bunker near Ufa, a good thousand kilometers from Moscow. According to Grozev, Kremlin planes are currently flying into the remote city almost every day. The travel dates of Schoigu’s daughter Ksenia, who visited Ufa on March 22 for three days, also support this theory. Ksenia recently made international headlines when she posted a photo on Instagram with her son in the Ukrainian national colors. The Instagram profile is no longer publicly visible.
Its boss, Vladimir Putin, is said to have fled to a safe location even further away from possible dangers, most likely in Siberia. According to the Bellingcat journalist, government jet transponders are regularly deactivated via Surgut, from where planes are likely to continue flying to their secret destinations. Grozev suspects that somewhere in Siberia there is a top-secret bunker complex for the Kremlin’s highest-ranking politicians and military personnel. There have been reports in the past that Putin sheltered his family in a shelter in the Altai mountains.
Is a first nuclear strike imminent?
The withdrawal of high-ranking military officers to protective bunkers raises fears of a Russian nuclear weapons deployment. In the event of a nuclear first strike, such measures would have to be taken prior to the strike, as retaliatory strikes are likely. In the past, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has warned that Putin has the right to use nuclear weapons if NATO provokes Russia. A few days ago, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also made it clear that Russia’s war strategy also includes the use of nuclear weapons in exceptional cases.
Putin is said to have fled to his secret bunker several times since invading Ukraine. This was also indicated by a secret newspaper that former Estonian military general Riho Terras circulated on Twitter. Lands, who represents Estonia in the EU Parliament, writes in his post: “The oligarchs gathered there so that no one could escape. Putin is angry, he thought the whole war would be easy and everything would be over in 1-4 days.” . According to Terras, the newspaper about a meeting in the Urals came from a Ukrainian official.
Rfi navigation account, 20 minutes 30.03.2022, 12:57| Act: 03/30/2022, 1:05 pm