Putin 'personally approves assassinations' of his enemies as Kremlin 'coup' fears explode

Vladimir Putin personally approves decisions to kill opposition activists, a Russian whistleblower has claimed. Lt-Col Alexander Fedotov, 44, served in the FSB security service and has inside knowledge of the dictator's brutal regime.

He also said the president's henchmen are fearful of a coup against Mr Putin inspired from outside the country. Leading opposition campaigner Alexei Navalny - who died last year aged 47 in an Arctic jail - is one of many Putin foes who were poisoned. Fedotov confirmed the FSB - once headed by ex-KGB spy Putin - is behind the spate of poisonings, but it is the autocrat who personally decides who lives and dies.

In an interview with independent news outlet The Insider, he was asked who made the decision about assassinating opposition activists.

"The decision is 100 per cent approved by Putin because this situation will have big international consequences in the future," said the exiled colonel. Such decisions are not made without him."

He said: "Putin is not a Superman, he either gave an order or approved an initiative [to kill]."

This is done orally - there is no paper or electronic trail, he said.

"I've never heard of such documents," he said.

Mr Fedotov is unrepentant about speaking out against the Russian state security apparatus, where he and his father both served, aware he will be branded a "traitor".

"I swore an oath to the Russian Federation, not to Mr Putin," he said.

He was speaking out "not against Russia - but the system that destroyed it".

A recent crackdown on social media messengers was linked to paranoia over the possible toppling of Mr Putin, he said.

"I think that they [Russian authorities and secret services] are getting ready for a coup attempt," he said. "[They] try to limit the control of the public through communications from abroad, that's why Max [Russian state-backed messenger] is promoted to the public now."

Most Russians do not trust Max, seeing it as a tool for state spying.

The sinister poisonings are handled by the Second Department of the Second Service of the FSB along with FSB Institute Number 2.

Mr Fedotov confirmed to The Insider some of the sinister operatives deployed as poisoners, highlighting how some were promoted as rewards for successful operations.

As well as Navalny, another Russian politician to be repeatedly poisoned was Vladimir Kara-Murza, 44, who also has a British passport.

He survived two poisonings and a stint in Putin's repressive jail system, but is now living in exile in the US.

All foes are constantly monitored - and the FSB even put its snoopers on Ksenia Sobchak, 43, a TV presenter and "opposition politician" who is known as Putin's goddaughter. Her father Anatoly was Putin's political mentor.

The operatives are based in the FSB's sinister Priboy Tower, a 24-floor complex on Vernadsky Prospekt.

The empire of repression - which he likens to Hitler's Gestapo - is headed by a ruthless loyalist holding the rank of a General who can call Putin at any time.

"The head of the Second Service, Alexey Sedov, has a direct telephone line to Vladimir Putin," said the whistleblower.

He identified poisoners linked to the stalking and death of Navalny.

Among them were Ivan Osipov, 49, a doctor, who was in Tomsk during the assassination attempt on Navalny, and uses the fake name Ivan Vasilyevich Spiridonov, August 21, 1975.

Another was Oleg Tayakin, 44, an employee of the FSB's Forensic Science Institute who graduated from the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University.

Tayakin was on the phone with team members during Navalny's poisoning in Tomsk, Siberia.

One more was Alexei Krivoshchyokov, 46, an operative of FSB's Second Service.

He actively followed Navalny during his travels across Russia in 2017 and spoke with other poisoning team members during the opposition leader's exposure to Novichok in August 2020.

Another was Konstantin Kudryavtsev, 45, a chemist at the FSB's Forensic Science Institute, who "cleaned up traces of Navalny's poisoning during two trips to Omsk in 2020".

One more was Vladimir Panyayev, 44, who tailed Navalny in 2017, participated in the poisoning in Tomsk in 2020, and was in Kaliningrad during the alleged poisoning attempt in 2020, according to investigative journalists.