The Kremlin has dramatically elevated the non-public security around President Vladimir Putin, putting in surveillance techniques within the houses of shut staffers as a part of new measures prompted by a wave of assassinations of high Russian army figures and fears of a coup, in keeping with a report from a European intelligence company obtained by NCS.
Cooks, bodyguards and photographers who work with the president are additionally banned from touring on public transport, the file says. Visitors to the Kremlin chief should be screened twice, and these working near him can solely use telephones with out web entry, it provides.
Some of the measures had been put in place in current months within the wake of the killing of a high basic in December, which sparked a dispute within the high ranks of Russia’s security institution, the report says. They counsel mounting unease throughout the Kremlin because it faces rising issues at dwelling and overseas, together with financial woes, increasing signs of dissent and setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Russian security officers have drastically lowered the variety of places that Putin recurrently visits, the report says. He and his household have stopped going to their regular residences within the Moscow area and at Valdai, the president’s secluded summer season property which lies between St. Petersburg and the capital.
He has not visited a army facility this 12 months thus far, the report says, regardless of common journeys in 2025. To get around these restrictions, the Kremlin releases pre-recorded pictures of him to the general public, the report provides.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin additionally spends weeks at a time in upgraded bunkers, usually in Krasnodar, a coastal area bordering the Black Sea hours away from Moscow, the report says.
The file, launched to NCS and different media shops by a supply near a European intelligence company, comes at a time of a rising perceived disaster around the Kremlin, 4 years into its brutal and ill-fated struggle.
Russian losses, estimated by western nations, of around 30,000 lifeless and injured every month, coupled with restricted territorial beneficial properties on the frontline, and repeated drone assaults by Ukraine deep inside Russia, have taken the toll of the battle to a stage many imagine is unsustainable.
The financial price of the struggle is now palpable – with cell-phone knowledge outages that recurrently blight main cities angering even the pro-Putin bourgeoisie – including to a way of the struggle starting to hit the city elite, who till now had been largely remoted from the invasion’s influence.
The report supplies uncommon element of Moscow’s issues over deteriorating inside security. It additionally outlines probably embarrassing particulars of a blowup within the Russian security and army command over who was accountable for the safety of high brass – one thing it says prompted the assessment of Putin’s protocols and the extension of a better stage of private security to 10 extra senior commanders.
The report says that, because the starting of March 2026, the “Kremlin and Vladimir Putin himself have been concerned about potential leaks of sensitive information, as well as the risk of a plot or coup attempt targeting the Russian president. He is particularly wary of the use of drones for a possible assassination attempt by members of the Russian political elite.”
But probably the most hanging conclusion issues erstwhile Putin confidante, Sergei Shoigu.
The sidelined former protection minister, at present serving as secretary of the Security Council, “is associated with the risk of a coup, as he retains significant influence within the military high command”, the report says.
It provides the arrest of Shoigu’s former deputy and shut affiliate, Ruslan Tsalikov, on March 5 is taken into account “a breach of the tacit protection agreements among elites, weakening Shoigu and increasing the likelihood that he himself could become the target of a judicial investigation.”
Russia’s investigative committee stated in a March assertion that Tsalikov had been arrested on expenses associated to embezzlement, cash laundering and bribery. Reports of corruption within the army elite are frequent however have multiplied because the Ukraine invasion started.
The report doesn’t present proof to assist the claims towards Shoigu, who was previously seen as very near Putin, and a bid to unseat the Russian president would mark a stark reversal in allegiance. Given its launch could also be aimed toward destabilizing the Kremlin, it’s notable that the European intelligence service would on the identical time successfully forewarn the Kremlin of a potential coup.
Putin survived a earlier coup try in June 2023, when mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin led a failed march on Moscow.
Internal disputes within the Moscow elite are sometimes topic to heavy hypothesis however hardly ever uncovered. And deep into the invasion of Ukraine, as US assist for Kyiv dwindles, European intelligence companies have important motivation to counsel mounting strife and paranoia within the Kremlin.
The nature of such intelligence makes a number of the particulars arduous to confirm. NCS has approached the Kremlin for remark.
Some of the security measures around Putin detailed have been reported beforehand, or had been broadly presumed to be the case, together with the intensive physique searches, the Kremlin’s avoidance of smartphones and restriction of the president’s actions. Putin remains to be recurrently seen in public, this week assembly with Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov and Iran’s overseas minister, Abbas Araghchi.
Putin started isolating himself through the Covid-19 pandemic, usually sitting on the finish of a protracted desk from his high-profile company, up till he ordered the February 2022 invasion. Reports have instructed he makes use of the identical workplace setup in a number of places from which to deal with his cupboard by video-link.
The particulars of recent security measures come days after Moscow introduced important modifications to its May 9 Red Square parade to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany. This 12 months’s occasion – the fifth because the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – will happen with out heavy weaponry, corresponding to armor and missiles.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated the risk and current success of longer-range Ukrainian strikes was one motivation.
“Against the backdrop of this terrorist threat,” he stated, “of course, all measures are being taken to minimize the danger.” Previous parades have been a show of Kremlin army may, but been lowered because the begin of the Ukraine invasion, citing operational and security issues.
The intelligence report instructed a heated change between high brass in a Kremlin assembly late final 12 months with Putin partially sparked the brand new measures. After the assassination of Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov in Moscow on December 22, 2025, presumably by Ukrainian brokers, Putin summoned key security personnel three days later.
During the assembly, Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov criticized the Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov for failing to guard his officers, who in flip complained of an absence of sources and personnel to do the job, the report says. “Emphasizing the fear and demoralization this has caused among (military) personnel, Valeri Gerasimov strongly criticized his counterparts in the special services for their lack of foresight”, it says.
The intelligence report additionally says: “At the end of this tense meeting, Vladimir Putin called for calm, proposing an alternative working format and instructing participants to present concrete solutions to the issue within one week.” That fast answer concerned Putin extending the attain of his personal Federal Protection Service (FSO) – which at the moment solely protected Gerasimov within the army command – to supply security to 10 extra senior commanders.
The report claims the enhancing of Putin’s personal security measures got here after this widening of the FSO’s remit.
It is uncommon for western intelligence companies to leak detailed accounts of confidential deliberations by hostile actors, probably obtained from human or digital sources, each of which danger compromise if uncovered. Yet its launch could mirror a bid by European officers to grab upon a hope that critics have argued has lengthy been their sole technique to defeat Russia in Ukraine – to attend for its inside collapse.