2023-11-15 17:18:21
Russian politician Nikolai Patrushev is causing speculation with a strange speech about Vladimir Putin.
Image: Imago
A video by Putin confidant Nikolai Patrushev poses a mystery: Why does the former intelligence chief speak about the Russian president in the past tense – as if Putin had already died?
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Nikolai Patrushev, former head of the Russian secret service FSB, stirs up rumors with a speech about Vladimir Putin. The Putin confidant speaks about the Kremlin boss in the past tense – as if he had already died. Russia experts at least see signs that something strange is going on in the Kremlin.
There is a persistent rumor about Vladimir Putin that he is seriously ill. And then there is the intensified form of it: The Kremlin boss is said to have already died. Since then, only doubles have been seen in public.
Ironically, conjectures about the alleged demise of the Russian president cannot be put to rest. They didn’t boom again until October 26th, when they were launched by a Telegram channel called General SVR and spread rapidly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was forced to issue a denial at the time: Putin was alive and doing well.
But now the former head of the Russian domestic secret service FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, is fueling the rumors again. With a strange speech that is circulating on the Internet.
“Has the service started?”
Sea «Frankfurter Rundschau» For example, the speech by the politician and Putin confidant – who is dressed entirely in black – is reminiscent of a “funeral speech”. So he persistently speaks about the 71-year-old Kremlin boss in the past tense: “He believed in the people and in the reliability of their support, consciously recognized and assumed all responsibility for saving the fatherland,” said Patrushev.
He goes on to talk about the 1990s in Russia, when Putin’s rise to power began: “It took a leader who put the well-being of the people at the center of the agenda. Putin became such a leader.” Everything in the past tense – as if Putin was no longer among the living.
The special choice of words is striking. “Has the memorial service begun?” mocked Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov on Platform X.
In 2007 it was probably the real thing: Russian President Vladimir Putin (l.) meets the then intelligence chief Nikolai Patrushev in the Kremlin in Moscow. (archive image)
Bild:
Keystone
A further denial from Moscow is still pending. The fact that such wild rumors about Putin can even arise is due to the Kremlin’s secrecy: Putin, who is already very careful about discretion, has been living in isolation since the corona pandemic, it is said. This is also why more look-alikes are being sent to events at home and abroad.
The Russia expert Anders Åslund is skeptical: “Something very strange is going on in the Kremlin,” he says in an analysis of the “Kyiv Post» quoted. This time the rumors about Putin’s death were accompanied by other strange events, says the former advisor to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Suspiciously little was heard from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who was otherwise very broadcast-conscious. Patrushev – who is seen by some as a possible successor to Putin – is said to not like the Chechens. He could now have eliminated this, another Russia expert, Mark Katz, professor at George Mason University in the US state of Virginia, is quoted in the “Kyiv Post”.
Is the Kremlin behind the “funeral speech”?
Russia expert Anders Åslund does not express the opinion that Putin has already died. But his demise may be imminent.
The Kremlin is “very isolated, so we know a lot less than before,” he points out. Nevertheless, he suspects that Patrushev’s “funeral speech” – all in black and in the past tense – was distributed by the Kremlin itself as an “experimental balloon”. “It looks like the Kremlin is preparing Russia for Putin’s death.”
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