A thriller shakes the Kremlin and raises numerous questions about the maneuvers of Russian power in the shadow of ruler Vladimir Putin. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council, would have saved himself from an attempt to eliminate him with a dose of poison. It’s a huge chunk of Russian power, Putin’s real right-hand man and former head of the KGB, who is seen as the tsar’s successor in the Kremlin. To break the news, lacking concrete evidence, the Telegram General SRV channel is the same one that wrote months ago that Putin had an operation in May and only communicated with Patrushev himself during the two days of convalescence.
According to the Telegram channel, which is run by a self-proclaimed and anonymous former Kremlin official, the secretary of the National Security Council felt ill at the end of a working day, was rescued by medical staff at the last minute and taken home “in stable conditions”. The disease is caused by a “toxic substance,” a “synthetic poison” that is absorbed through skin contact, the Messenger reports, citing General SRV.
If that’s true, the first question is whether we’re facing attempted murder or a warning letter. For the same source, it is the beginning of a “grand redistribution of elites” in which Putin is no longer fully in control of his “magic circle.” But who would have an interest in eliminating (or terrifying) Putin’s right-hand man, dubbed by the US press and former British intelligence leaders as his heir-designate? “His competitors for the succession,” says the newspaper’s analysis, “or whoever doesn’t want this succession.”