MOSCOW — The Kremlin has sharply increased security around Russian President Vladimir Putin over fears of assassination and a coup attempt, according to a European intelligence report obtained by CNN.
The report said Putin’s personal security has been bolstered and surveillance systems have been installed at the homes of his close aides, following a series of suspected assassination plots against Russia’s top military figures.
Although Putin made regular trips in 2025, he has not visited a single military facility so far this year, the report said. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Putin has spent weeks at a time in fortified bunkers.
The economic toll of the war is now visible. Frequent mobile data outages in Russia’s major cities are angering even Putin-aligned business elites, the report said, meaning urban elites are no longer insulated from the war’s effects. The report describes growing alarm over deteriorating internal security in Moscow.
Since early March 2026, the report said, “the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin himself are concerned about the potential risk of sensitive information leaks, as well as the risk of any conspiracy or coup attempt targeting the Russian president. They are particularly worried about the possible use of drones by the country’s political elites in assassination attempts.”
The most striking detail concerns Sergei Shoigu, Putin’s former close ally and now secretary of the Security Council. The cornered former defense minister retains significant influence in the senior military command, and the Kremlin is concerned he may be linked to coup risks, the report said. On March 5, a close associate of Shoigu, Ruslan Salikov, was arrested in what is being viewed as a breach of the unwritten security pact among the elite.
Putin survived a coup attempt in June 2023. Internal rifts within Moscow’s elite often fuel intense speculation but rarely surface publicly. With U.S. support for Ukraine waning, European intelligence agencies have enough reason to point to rising tensions and paranoia in the Kremlin, the report said.
Some details of Putin’s security arrangements have surfaced before, including extensive body searches, a ban on smartphones inside the Kremlin and restrictions on the president’s movements. Putin is still seen regularly in public; this week he met Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
The intelligence report said a meeting late last year between Putin and top officials at the Kremlin grew heated, providing another reason for the new security measures.
During that meeting, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov criticized Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov for failing to protect his officers, the report said.
The report added, “At the end of that tense meeting, Vladimir Putin called on everyone to remain calm, proposed an alternative course of action and ordered participants to present a concrete solution to the problem within a week.”
As part of that quick fix, Putin expanded the reach of his own Federal Protective Service (FSO).
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report