Kremlin could be plotting to use Putin as scapegoat to get Russia out of Ukraine
Putin speaks at event marking anniversary of Battle of Kursk
Vladimir Putin’s comrades could in the future send him to a tribunal in order to avoid accusations of war crimes in Ukraine, Express.co.uk has been told.
Tensions and paranoia have increased tenfold in Russia in recent months, even more so after the death of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
After the mercenary leader staged a failed coup against the state, whispers grew that Putin’s enemies were walking the halls of power.
Several high-ranking military figures were immediately detained, and a number of Kremlin top brass have been tipped as having sympathised with Prigozhin’s intentions.
He is now dead, his private jet having been shot down north of Moscow, but Dr Yuri Felshtinsky says this won’t end Putin’s problems — and that the Russian President will now be fearing for his future.
READ MORE Putin’s options dwindling as fears grow that FSB ‘will hand him over to Hague’
Putin already has an international arrest warrant out for him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
His inner circle and the Federal Security Service (FSB) are more than aware of this according to Dr Felshtinsky, author of Blowing up Ukraine, and could well use it against him when he stands down as President — something that he believes could happen as soon as December.
“I don’t believe these people will send Putin to The Hague for a tribunal,” he said. “But that’s what he’s afraid of.
“He doesn’t trust his comrades from the FSB. He will be afraid that if he leaves office he becomes just an ordinary citizen.”
“Sooner or later, he might be sent to a tribunal because this might be the easiest way [for the Kremlin] to claim that he is the only person responsible for the crimes committed in Ukraine.”
There have been instances of war crimes being committed in Ukraine by Russian troops.
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Perhaps the biggest came last year in Bucha, a city just north of Kyiv that Putin’s troops and mercenaries momentarily captured before retreating.
When Ukrainian forces entered Bucha, they found shallow graves piled high with bodies, some of which had been mutilated and dismembered, others summarily executed.
Dead bodies of men, women, and children under the age of 18 were also uncovered, some from basements where they had been tortured.
Investigators later said they found evidence that women had been raped by Russian forces, some as young as 14 years old.
The international arrest warrant was issued almost a year later, however, for Russia’s enforced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and enlistment in re-education camps disguised as summer camps.
Almost a million children are thought to have been taken, something that forced the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Putin and his Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.
If either of them enters a country party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, that country is obliged to arrest them on behalf of the court — although some states, like South Africa, have said they wouldn’t arrest Putin if he landed in their country.
For now, it appears that Putin won’t be leaving Russia anytime soon. He has carried out almost all of his diplomatic meetings either inside Russia or via video link.
This week, he met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the reopening of the Black Sea grain deal, and he is soon expected to host North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to broker a deal to buy weapons.
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