Will it be propaganda or a (likely) tip-off from Russian intelligence passed under the table to the Ukrainian intelligence agency?
Ukrainians argue that a plot by senior Russian government officials is underway, with the aim of ousting (possibly even killing) the president Vladimir Putin and favor a negotiated agreement with the West.
Western intelligence sources took care of caution and told The voice of america than the claims of a possible coup in Moscow with the killing of Putin it could be part of a Ukrainian disinformation operation, to confuse the Russian government about the loyalty of some of its top officials.
Kiev intelligence claims that the coup against President Putin is the project that a group of influential figures among the Russian political and business elite would like to carry out. According to the intelligence agency, the leaders of the group are the "siloviki“, Members of Soviet intelligence and military nomenclature, who came to power in the 90s together with Putin.
The siloviks were oligarchs, business magnates and politicians of the Boris Yeltsin era. According to rumors, they would like to depose Putin "as soon as possible" in a "palace coup" and replace him with his senior intelligence adviser, Alexander Bortnikov. Bortnikov is a Soviet-era intelligence agent who today heads the Federal Security Service (FSB).
There are reports that Putin blames the intelligence (FSB) for the failure of the military campaign in Ukraine, thus disrupting relations with Bortnikiv. Instead, several Yeltsin-era oligarchs would have started to criticize the war in Ukraine, including the banking magnate. Michael Fridman, the metal tycoon Oleg Deripaska e Oleg Tinkov, which owns a network of banks and investment firms in Russia.
Western intelligence, however, is very cautious on the news as it is certain that in Putin's inner circle of advisers there is unlikely to be anyone ready to betray him. Furthermore, the head of the Kremlin spies, Bortnikov, does not differ much from Putin's thinking on Russian internal and international strategy. Putin, among other things, has made all his most loyal officials very rich over the years, placed at the head of the various state apparatuses.