Putin a 'Dead Man Walking' and Warned 'To Be Very Careful' When He Jets Off to China
Aug. 30 2023, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Vladimir Putin was dubbed a “dead man walking” this week and warned to be “very careful” when he visits China later this year, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come after the Russian leader announced he would visit China in October, sources close to Putin said he should be “very careful” following the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last week.
According to Professor Anthony Glees, Wagner blamed Putin for Prigozhin’s plane crash death on August 23 and will likely seek retribution for the suspected killing of their leader.
"Putin the ex-KGB Officer is playing poker, as he always does, pretending his hand is far stronger than it actually is, that every defeat was in fact all part of a carefully worked-out plan,” Glees explained to Daily Star this week.
"It does not exist,” the professor continued. “He's a dead man walking."
Glees also argued that Putin made a mistake by not claiming responsibility for Prigozhin’s death because it made the Russian despot look “frightened” and “weak.”
"In other words, Putin was too frightened and too weak to claim the credit for the killing whilst cynically hinting that it was bound to happen,” Glees told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Putin’s recent announcement that he will visit China in October is reportedly part of a plot to make the “world see him as supremely powerful.”
"What Putin wants now, just a few days after arranging for Prigozhin to meet his maker on 23 August, is for the world and especially NATO to see him as supremely powerful, calm, and in full control of events,” Glees said.
"Going to China would send a signal that all was well for him in Russia."
But despite Putin’s hopes to make the world and NATO view him as “supremely powerful,” Glees predicted that the Russian leader will still “worry” about leaving Moscow vulnerable during his trip to China and the possibility of being assassinated during the visit.
"Putin will of course worry, desperately, about two things if he does go: first, that in his absence in Beijing, an opposing member of the Russian mafia will simply move into the Kremlin,” the professor told Daily Star.
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"Second, that his presidential jet could be shot down over the steppes of eastern Russia by Wagner group members who may have access to a Buk missile system amongst their arsenal,” he continued.
"It was a Buk surface-to-air missile that shot down Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, having been given the order to fire by Putin himself on 17 July 2014."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Putin announced his scheduled visit to China just a few days after Prigozhin was killed on August 23.
Putin’s last visit to China was in February 2022 and it came less than three weeks before he launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 24.