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<\/p>\nVladimir Putin\u2019s \u201cpuppet\u201d in Ukraine has been left fighting for his life after being shot in occupied Crimea during an assassination attempt.<\/p>\n
The former MP Oleg Tsarev, 53, was reportedly in line as being a pro-Moscow puppet ruler of Ukraine if Putin\u2019s Russian invasion had been successful. However, Tsarev had recently become highly critical of the Russian government\u2019s war tactics. <\/p>\n
This was followed with an ominous warning on state TV in Russia, where a leading Kremlin propagandist had said \u201cthose who find themselves between them [Russian security services] will be crushed into dust.\u201d <\/p>\n
READ MORE: Paranoid Putin jails top Russian scientists for 'sharing secrets with the West' <\/b><\/p>\n
For more stories on the Russia and Ukraine war, click here<\/b><\/p>\n
According to Kremlin politician Vladimir Rogov, Tsarev is now reportedly \u201ccritically\u201d wounded and in an unspecified intensive care unit. Despite the public remarks made by the Kremlin, initial reports were that the ex-MP\u2019s attack was the result of a Ukrainian hit squad.<\/p>\n
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Hours before the near-fatal shooting, Tsarev had told pro-war TsarGradTV: \u201cRussia took Crimea and lost all of Ukraine. We have started a war.\u201d Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind suggested Tsarev may have been killed by Putin's FSB security service, as it disputed key details of Russian reports over the shooting of the would-be stooge president.<\/p>\n
\u200c\u201cAn ambulance was not called to the scene, the hospitals cannot find him, the investigators of the local Investigative Committee have no idea what happened to him,\u201d said the channel.\u200c \u201cEverything points either to a staging [of his shooting] or to the fact that he was killed by the FSB.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsarev was originally an ex-MP and presidential candidate in Kyiv but he switched sides to Russia in 2014. He became speaker of the putative Novorossiya parliament set up in Donetsk and Luhansk regions after Putin grabbed the territory.<\/p>\n
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