Paranoid security agents guarding Vladimir Putin will turn off mobile internet coverage in St Petersburg when the dictator gives a speech in the city today.
They fear the signals could be used to send drones in assassinations of the warmonger, as has become a common tactic in Ukraine and – more recently – in cross-border attacks in Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Communications has issued an order for all mobile operators, according to journalist Farida Rustamova’s Faridaily news outlet sources.
The move was “to prevent drones from attacking the forum site during the plenary session of Putin’s traditional event” – the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, seen as Russia’s Davos equivalent.
Ukraine has launched multiple drone strikes against Russia in retaliation for endless rocket attacks by Putin’s forces.
Paranoid security guards guarding Vladimir Putin (pictured Thursday) will turn off mobile internet coverage in St Petersburg when the dictator gives a speech in the city today
Strikes that hit the Kremlin on May 3 were blamed on Ukraine by the Russians.
This was portrayed by Moscow as an attempt to “kill Putin.”
And at the end of May there was a drone strike near Putin’s palatial residence Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow.
Footage showed sniffer dogs at today’s location in St Petersburg, Putin’s home city, amid a massive security check.
Putin will give a “long speech” followed by a discussion.
“We can expect a very voluminous speech from the head of state,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“A rather long speech has indeed been prepared.”
Most Western countries are boycotting the event which has involved eminent foreign visitors in previous years.
Putin’s planned appearance comes amid rumors that he is increasingly using a body double for public events due to security fears or illness.
Swedish economist Anders Aslund — who has served as an adviser to both the Russian and Ukrainian governments — told Die Welt: “Putin is afraid to go public. Whenever he appears, there are suspicions that he is a doppelgänger.
Putin seems scared. He has built bunkers at his three main residences. He travels across the country in an armored train. And at each of his three main residences, he has built special stations for his personal safety.
“The level of paranoia seems almost pathological.”
Both Russia and Ukraine have deployed drones to carry out precision strikes against enemy units. The small, mobile devices are hard to detect and can penetrate deep behind enemy lines while keeping their operators out of the line of fire.
Both sides have used consumer quad-copters to scout enemy positions and drop grenades on soldiers hiding in foxholes or armored vehicles.
But consumer models usually need an internet connection to function, with operators using internet-connected devices and their GPS signals to maneuver them into positions.
They can also be used to direct other large munitions to their targets.
After the drone attack on the Kremlin in May, it was reported that Putin became afraid of traveling overseas for fear of being assassinated.
Strikes that hit the Kremlin on May 3 (pictured) were blamed on Ukraine by the Russians
This also came after an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, which required any member state to detain Putin if he put food on their territory.
There have also been rumors of a possible coup against him by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s mercenary group, which has become increasingly critical of the Russian military and its faltering battlefield efforts in Ukraine.
According to the Daily Beast, citing the Russian independent medium Verstka, the Russian leader has increasingly feared for his life in recent months.
The source said “behind the scenes of the Kremlin” that Putin was hesitant to travel anywhere and that “he has no sense of security.”
He did not travel to Turkey for President Recep Erdogan’s inauguration, and he will not attend an upcoming Shanghai cooperation event in India in July.
Reports have also suggested that Putin’s inner circle has become smaller and smaller since the start of the war in Ukraine, to the point that he refuses to listen to negative battlefield news from his generals.
The Kiev counter-offensive is making steady progress on at least two fronts in Ukraine, with the country’s military saying on Thursday it had regained control of more than 38 square miles of territory.
Russia’s own progress, meanwhile, has stalled for months, with its military efforts more focused on maintaining its defensive positions.
According to Iuliia Osmolovska, director of the GlobSec think tank, Putin shuns any bad news about his army’s campaign and refuses to use the internet.
“As far as we know from reliable sources, Putin did not receive real, up-to-date information from the battlefield some time ago because he does not want to hear bad news,” she said.
“Second, he doesn’t use the internet, so he has no other information to verify the news he hears,” she added.
Putin has shown signs of paranoia in the past. Weeks before launching his invasion of Ukraine, he was seen in the Kremlin holding meetings with foreign dignitaries at a large table, each party sitting on opposite sides. Pictured: Putin (left) meets French President Emmanuel Macron in Moscow on February 7, 2022
Russia on Thursday announced plans to hold elections in occupied parts of Ukraine in just three months, Moscow’s latest bid to signal control of the country’s south and east even as Ukraine’s counter-offensive continues .
The Ukrainian attack is in its early stages and military experts say decisive battles are still ahead. But corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armored vehicles by the side of the road in villages recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces testified to Kiev’s greatest progress since last year.
“Our heroic people, our troops on the front lines are facing very tough resistance,” Zelensky told NBC News in an interview in Kiev. “Because if Russia loses this campaign against Ukraine, I would say, it really means losing the war.”
Zelensky said the news from the front lines was “generally positive, but it’s very difficult,” according to a partial transcript of the interview.