Terrorist group says Putin’s days are numbered
The terrorist group claiming responsibility for the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ally to Vladimir Putin, have said the Russian leader's days are numbered.
Last month, the daughter of one of Putin's allies was killed in a car bombing after the car she was driving exploded and caught fire.
Russian officials said a bomb had been fitted to a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to her father, Alexander Dugin, who was sometimes referred to as 'Putin's brain'.
Security services accused Ukraine of being responsible for the bombing, claiming that 'Ukrainian special services' had carried out the attack.
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Ukraine denied responsibility for the bombing, saying they 'are not a criminal state like Russia or a terrorist one at that'.
Instead, a group calling themselves the National Republican Army (NRA) claimed they carried out the bombing, and now they've said they believe the days of Putin's regime are numbered.
The NRA claims to be a group of Russian partisans dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime and a representative for the group spoke to the Kyiv Post about the bombing.
Named 'Alexsandr', they said the target of the bombing had been Dugin and his daughter, but only got one of them due to 'miscalculated' intelligence.
They also said that one day it would be Putin himself who would lose his power, with the group suggesting powerful figures in Russia could get rid of him in exchange for an end to sanctions.
They said: "Putin will be removed as soon as he becomes inconvenient for elites. Most likely, this will happen quietly and fearfully.
"Maybe, he will spend three days lying around in his cabinet like one of his predecessors. But it is very possible that he will lose his head in exchange for sanctions relief."
"In other words, the old man will become the fall guy and will be charged with everything that happened. Well, he certainly deserves that. However, his cronies won’t be able to get away with it either. We have taken note of every move."
The group claimed several current members of law enforcement were among their ranks, and were adamant that Putin could not simply be removed and allowed to stay away from power as 'Aleksandr' promised the Russian leader 'will not get away with it'.
He suggested several scenarios for Putin's end, with the softest result being 'court-martialled like Milosevic', the Yugoslavian leader who ended up facing charges of war crimes in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
As for the harshest possible ending, the NRA representative suggested Putin could wind up 'executed like Ceausescu', the Romanian dictator who faced a firing squad after ordering the military to open fire on protestors.
Even if Putin's days are numbered it might be some time before his government falls, as the NRA said they don't see 'armed overthrow of the Russian government' as being possible at the moment.
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Topics: World News, News, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin
Joe Harker