POISON PUTIN - THE RUNT DICTATOR OF RUSSIA HAS A POTTY MOUTH - CAPTURE PUTIN! POISON HIM ON SIGHT! - Putin Says Russia Is Preparing Response to Attack on Crucial Bridge to Crimea

PUTIN = MASS MURDERER STILL ON THE LAM! BUT WE KNOW WHERE HE LIVES!

Putin Says Russia Is Preparing Response to Attack on Crucial Bridge to Crimea

Russian president Vladimir Putin attends a televised meeting with officials to assess the consequences of an attack on the Crimean Bridge in Moscow, Russia July 17, 2023. Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin via REUTERS

Reuters

July 17, 2023

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Monday his defense ministry was preparing proposals for a response to an overnight attack that damaged the road bridge linking Crimea to southern Russia, for which he blamed Ukraine.

At the end of a televised video meeting with national and regional officials to assess the consequences of the attack, Putin called it a cruel and senseless act, as he said the bridge "has not been used for military transportation for a long time."

Russian authorities had said a couple driving over the bridge to go on holiday in Crimea had been killed, and their 14-year-old daughter had been injured.

Kyiv did not officially claim responsibility, but Ukrainian media said Ukrainian security services had deployed maritime drones against the bridge.

The attack was similar to one in October, implicitly claimed by Ukraine, that put both the road and rail bridges out of action for a time.

After two such incidents in his war with Ukraine, Putin demanded "concrete" proposals to ensure the security of the bridge, a prestige project that he instigated after Russia seized and then unilaterally annexed the peninsula on the Black Sea from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine has vowed to take Crimea back, along with all the territory that Russia has seized since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine—which Moscow calls a "special military operation"—in February 2022.

The latest attack coincided with the summer holiday season, and meant Russian tourists wanting to drive to or from Crimea would face the prospect of long queues for a car ferry, or crossing territory seized by Russia that Ukraine has vowed to recapture.

Deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin told the video conference that there was no damage to the pylons of the 19-km (12-mile) bridge, but that a span carrying traffic in one direction had been completely destroyed and would have to be rebuilt.

He said road traffic would resume in one direction by Sept. 15, and would be restored in both directions by Nov. 1. The parallel railway bridge was not damaged.

Kyiv says Russians have no business holidaying on seized territory, especially while Moscow is bombing Ukraine.

Putin's inner circle ‘The Ozeros' are plotting to topple despot and end bloody Ukraine war

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Russian leader Vladimir Putin's inner circle - dubbed 'The Ozeros' - is planning to oust the desport and sabotage his military operations in Ukraine, according to a Russian army veteran.

Igor Girkin, a Russian nationalist military blogger and former Federal Security Service officer, said a move within his close circle could see Putin removed as President.

Girkin, who backs the Ukraine war but has repeatedly condemned Russia's performance in the conflict, claimed the group planned to sabotage the operation in the wake of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's coup.

The Ozereos is a St Petersburg-based group of Russia's most wealthy and powerful businessmen and bankers - many of whom are in top positions within the Kremlin.

In a Telegram post on Wednesday, Girkin said the mutiny by Wagner troops had succeeded in redistributing power among the Russian elite.

Vladimir Putin Visits Hungary© Getty

Girkin also believes that many of Putin's inner circle knew about the Wagner rebellion before it happened on June 23.

However, the coup came to an abrupt end after just 24 hours after the Wagner leader agreed to a deal with Putin, and retreated his troops who had reached within 125 miles of Moscow.

Now, Girkin claims, they want to oust Putin - who has held power in Russia on and off since 1999 - in favor of one of their own members such as Prigozhin or Putin's First Deputy Chief of Staff, Sergey Kiriyenko.

He also claimed that the loyal circle will target Russia's Ministry of Defence, the FSB, and other major government departments.

putin and andrei© Getty

The group wants to sabotage Russia's military operations and control areas in the war so that Putin realizes he must accept defeat and end the war in Ukraine, the self-named Russian nationalist said.

But The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank, said that Girkin's claims aim to lessen the support for a ceasefire in Ukraine in the hopes of portraying the Wagner boss as a threat to Putin's regime.

The group said Girkin's claims aim to "encourage harsher Kremlin action against Prigozhin and discourage any efforts to freeze the front in Ukraine."

However, Russian independent news outlet Meduza somewhat backed up Girkin's claims, saying that one member of the inner circle, Sergey Kiriyenko, is already trying to position himself as a possible successor to Putin.

vladimir yakunin© Getty

Girkin said: "The powers within the ruling mafia are currently being redistributed as, or close to, planned by the conspirators behind the coup.

"The 'Shoigu-Vorobiev-Sobyanin Tower' has lost some of its positions although not completely demolished, and part of its influence and resources 'flows' into a group of oligarchs.

"This group, vitally interested in ending the war 'on any terms' - will not let us win in any case and will lead the president to realize the need to accept defeat and transfer supreme power to a successor nominated from this group.

"In the coming months, we should expect new campaigns aimed at 'inoculation'."

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Vladimir Putin Visits Hungary© Getty