Kiev secret service chief: There were assassination plans against Putin

However, Budanov is known for provocations, which are part of his psychological warfare. The Kremlin reacted to the statement: spokesman Dmitry Peskov made it clear that the security of the first man in Russia would be adequately ensured. "The threat from the Kiev regime is obvious," he told the state news agency Tass in Moscow.

Comparison with the death of Stalin

Budanov added fuel to the fire with the statement that Putin was no longer the compromise figure recognized by everyone in the Russian elite. However, because he had been in power for more than 20 years, the Russians were afraid of losing him. For this reason, he expects the death of Putin to be similar to the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1953. For people in the Soviet Union at that time, "their whole world collapsed, they didn't know how to go on living", said the head of military intelligence.

Little is known about attempted attacks on Putin during his long time as head of the Kremlin. In May 2022, Budanov claimed that an assassination attempt by men from the Caucasus had failed a few days after Putin ordered a war of aggression against Ukraine. There was no evidence of this.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi once said in an interview that he had stopped counting when it came to plans to attack him. Immediately after the Russian invasion in February 2022, Russian special forces hunted him down in Kiev. Most recently, in May of this year, the top echelons of personal security were reorganized. Two officers were allegedly hired by Moscow to assassinate Zelenskyi, Budanov and other Ukrainian officials.