Daniel Hoffman said any plot to remove the Russian President could be potentially deadly as they won ‘t ask: “Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?” Speaking to The Daily Beast, the American espionage expert said it will happen “all of a sudden” and “he’ll be dead”.
He said: “These guys that are going to do it are going to be so secret about it, so that Putin doesn’t find them and kill them first.
“It’ll happen all of a sudden. And he’ll be dead.
“Nobody’s gonna ask, “Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?
“No. It’s a f*g hammer to the head and he’s dead.
“Or it’s time to go to the sanatorium. They schwack him for it.
“That’s what they’ll do.”
Mr Hoffman speculated there could be three key figures behind a plot to dispose of the Russian President.
They include defence minister Sergei Shoigu, head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, and the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov.
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However, King’s College London fellow Michael Clarke told Sky News earlier this month that despite Putin trying to “embalm” himself he thought that the former KGB officer was only a “hypochondriac”.
He said: “On October 7 he will be 70.
“He is known to hit the Botox quite heavily, I always say that he’s trying to embalm himself while he’s still alive – he does take a lot of Botox.
“He moves around with doctors, there’s known to be a little team of doctors who are never far away, and it’s said that he leaves meetings at frequent intervals to go and consult with somebody.
“I suspect that he’s only a hypochondriac, to be honest.
“If he is ill, or becomes ill, that would be one way out for Russia to say that the President has stepped down and the war will now be prosecuted by Nikolai Patrushev – who’s every bit as nasty as he is.”