‘Depressed’ Vladimir Putin has moved his family to a ‘secret underground city’

A ‘depressed’ Vladimir Putin has moved his family to a ‘secret underground city’ and is ‘set to hold a nuclear evacuation drill’ with the Kremlin’s doomsday plan, insider sources have claimed.

One source that previously said Putin is suffering from multiple and serious medical problems, and also claimed that Russian death toll in the Ukraine war was higher than even Kyiv’s estimates with over 17,000 casualties in 23 days of fighting. 

Putin ‘often pours his anger out on those close to him,’ the latest account said from the source – a Telegram channel supposedly linked to an ex-Kremlin intelligence insider who claims to retain close links to those in Putin’s circle.

‘He has no deep conversations with almost anyone, and limited contact even with his children – not only his [adult] daughters but also his [undisclosed] children with [Olympic gold medal winning gymnast, 38] Alina Kabaeva’.

The source said that Putin shocked his top generals recently by demanding nuclear drill be undertaken, increasing fears he is preparing for a nuclear conflict.

Another Russian expert has claimed that Putin has moved his family to a secret location that is not just a bunker, but a huge underground city to keep them safe from a potential nuclear fallout.

Putin previously threatened NATO allies with ‘consequences greater than any you have faced in history’ should they intervene in the Ukraine conflict, and placed Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert earlier this month.

On Saturday, Russia launched its ‘unstoppable’ nuclear-capable Kinzhal hypersonic missile, destroying a military storage facility in Ukraine.

In a recent post, the Telegram channel General SVR said that senior political figures ‘were warned on behalf of the president that, perhaps in the near future, they will participate in practising evacuation in case of a nuclear war.

‘All who were contacted with this warning were seriously surprised and concerned about this initiative by the President.

‘But all, without exception, confirmed their readiness to participate.

An element of Russian plans for a nuclear war are a fleet of ‘flying Kremlins’ – Ilyushin Il-80 Maxdomes, on permanent standby – that would be used by Putin and his closest allies to stay above a potential war.

These ‘doomsday’ planes are seen as ageing and due to be replaced by adapted Ilyushin 96-400M’s allowing the Russian leader to control troops and missiles during an atomic catastrophe.

However the ultramodern bunker in the sky is not believed to be ready yet.

While initially the channel was dismissed as unreliable, lately briefings attributed to Western intelligence have echoed its assertions over Putin’s supposed health issues. 

The channel also said: ‘The general mental state of Vladimir Putin has recently caused alarm among people in the president’s inner circle.’

Sources have claimed Vladimir Putin (pictured on Friday) is suffering from multiple and serious medical problems, including increasing levels of paranoia – raising fears of nuclear conflict

Pictured: Vladimir Putin with alleged mistress and Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva, whom is is said to have undisclosed children with

Repeating earlier claims about his alleged condition – previous dismissed by the Kremlin – the post said: ‘When Vladimir Putin, who suffers from oncology, Parkinson’s disease and schizoaffective disorder, invites members of the government and the heads of the State Duma and the Federation Council [the lower and upper houses of parliament] to take part in preparing for evacuation in case of a nuclear war… it becomes not fun at all’.

The only person who might trigger Armageddon is Putin, said the account.

It names ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, who now has a security role, along with the speakers of the two houses of parliament – Vyacheslav Volodin and Valentina Matviyenko – as among those allegedly told there would be a drill for nuclear war.

A schizoaffective disorder is a mental health condition including schizophrenia symptoms, for example hallucinations or delusions, and mood issues like depression or mania.

The channel today claimed Russia had logged the death toll as 17,000 including 12,949 service personnel.

The rest were from private military armies – or mercenaries, backing the Kremlin and supposedly deployed in Ukraine.

Russia has not given its estimated death toll in Ukraine for more than two weeks.

Earlier reports have said Putin had moved unidentified members of his immediate family either to a luxury mountain villa in neutral Switzerland, or to a hi-tech underground bunker in the Altai Mountains of Siberia.

Russian Doomsday Plane IL-80 pictured during Victory Day parade in Moscow

Political scientist Valery Solovey, 61, linked to the Telegram channel, said earlier this month: ‘In fact, it is not a bunker, but a whole underground city, equipped with the latest science and technology.’

He warned: ‘I hope this means something to you?

‘That the President sends his family to this bunker.’

He did not identify Putin’s family members but previously alleged Kabaeva is his secret spouse, and Russia’s hidden first lady. ‘This is his real family, and Alina is capable of influencing his decisions,’ Solovey said last year.

A former professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) – a training ground for future top diplomats and spies – Solovey’s home was recently searched and he was quizzed for eight hours.

The channel has also claimed that Putin and defence minister Sergei Shoigu – in charge of the faltering military invasion of Ukraine – attended a shamanic ritual in Siberia which involved the sacrifice of a black wolf in a rite to improve the president’s health.

‘A piece of white fabric was soaked with the wolf’s blood and burned,’ it said.

‘They allegedly saw a black raven in the smoke that circled for a long time.

‘For some reason, this sign was explained to Putin as a great success.’

Quizzed over his claims that Putin had a serious illness, strongly denied by the Kremlin, Solovey said: ‘I do not use the expression ‘terminally ill’ and I have never used it.

‘I use a euphemism: personal circumstances of compelling force.’

Putin has two adult daughters Dr Maria Vorontsova, 36, a geneticist, and Katerina, 35, a high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer-turned-mathematician.

He is also reported to have a daughter Luiza Rozova, a 18-year-old heiress also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, from a previous relationship with cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, now a part-owner of a major Russian bank.

Unconfirmed rumours denied by the Kremlin say he has children with Kabaeva. 

In an embarrassing security lapse last year, one of the four existing doomsday planes was infiltrated and robbed as it was undergoing a refit in Russian city Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov.

Some 39 pieces of radio equipment were stolen after a cargo hatch was opened. 

As Ukraine continues its strong resistance against Putin’s forces, resulting in more death and destruction amongst Moscow’s ranks than was ever expected, the Russian leader is said to be getting increasingly paranoid about even his closest allies.

Report suggest the humiliated dictator is looking for a scapegoat for the war’s failure, which is now dragging into its fourth week.

Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB spy now living in the UK, told the Sun Online that Putin lost the way before it even started.

‘He turned out to be a psychopath really heavily obsessed with paranoid ideas and conspiracy theories against himself and about non existent threats Russia allegedly faces from the rest of the world,’ Karpichkov said.

Ukrainian policemen secure the area by a five-storey residential building that partially collapsed after a shelling in Kyiv on March 18, 2022, as Russian troops try to encircle the Ukrainian capital

Damaged civil settlement is seen after Russian shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 18, 2022

Putin reportedly only had contact with his inner circle during the Covid-19 pandemic, but even they were asked to present faecal samples several times a week to check for infection and, in some cases, asked to isolate for two weeks before meetings.

Rumours surrounding the Russian leader’s health have been swirling for years, with repeated reports suggesting that he is suffering from cancer and Parkinson’s disease, or been affected by long Covid-19 causing ‘brain fog’. 

This – coupled with Putin putting Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert earlier this month – has raised fears that the world is edging closer to nuclear conflict.

‘Senior officials of the leading Nato countries also allow aggressive statements against our country, therefore I order the minister of defence and the chief of the general staff to transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty,’ Putin said in a televised address last month.

‘Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading Nato members made aggressive statements regarding our country.’ 

Meanwhile, the president of Belarus, who has allowed Russia to use his country’s territory to invade Ukraine, says he has no intention to host Russian nuclear weapons.

Alexander Lukashenko has beefed up military ties with Moscow after Western sanctions over his crackdown on protests after his reelection to a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West rejected as rigged. He has

Lukashenko had previously offered to host Russian nuclear weapons, but in an interview with Japanese broadcaster TBS released by his office on Friday, he said he has no such plans.

‘I’m not planning to deploy nuclear weapons here, produce nuclear weapons here, create and use nuclear weapons against anyone,’ he said, dismissing the allegations of such plans as an ‘invention by the West.’

Lukashenko said that he had made an earlier statement about a possible deployment of Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus in response to the talk in the West about a possible redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons from Germany to Poland.

The Belarusian leader noted that the constitutional amendments approved in a vote last month that shed Belarus’ neutral status has no relation to nuclear weapons.