Paranoid Vladimir Putin has reportedly equipped his favourite residence with air defence missiles as his fears grow over an attempt on his life.
The 71-year-old, who has been mired by recent reports of ill health, often prefers to exert his will over Russia from the warmer southern Black Sea climate in Sochi.
The dictator, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is now said to have made sure his home in the region is bristling with missiles because of worries about a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian forces have successfully carried out a number of remote attacks on Russian soil in recent months and Sochi could easily become a target from both the sea and air.
Putin’s billion-dollar domicile covers a whopping 190,000 square foot and is set in 17,000 acres of woodland with a no-fly zone overhead.
A Pantsir-S1 air defence system has been spotted on the property in footage shared on the Telegram messaging channel.
The Sun reports Viktor Alksnis, a politician known as the Black Colonel, said Ukraine was targeting Putin’s official residence, Bocharov Ruchey.
The property is where Putin has received world leaders including David Cameron and others down the years.
Mr Alksnis said: “It seems that the favourite vacation spot of the President of the Russian Federation, the Bocharov Ruchey residence near Sochi, will become inaccessible for security reasons.
“Ukraine is conducting a real hunt for Putin.”
On Friday November 10 Russian Putin visited the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don less than 60 miles from Ukraine’s southeastern border.
Almost 21 months of war have significantly eroded both Russia’s and Ukraine’s military resources. As winter comes, the fighting is likely to further settle into attritional warfare and analysts expect little change to the more than 600-mile front line.
Shortly after Putin’s visit to the military headquarters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was pressing ahead with its goals in Ukraine.
He said: “In the absence of conditions for a political-diplomatic settlement, we are continuing the special military operation.”
