Putin coup fears explode as Russian tyrant ‘purges’ closest ally who ‘made him President’ in latest war on ‘traitors’

PUTIN has ordered the arrest of his close former aide and the father of “Putinism”, according to reports from Moscow.

Shadowy figure Vladislav Surkov, who kept a picture of US rapper Tupac beside a picture of Putin on his desk, is being held under house arrest.

Surkov, whose age is either 57 or 59, was detained as part of a wide-ranging criminal probe that has also led to the arrest of 150 Russian security agents.

The case involves the alleged embezzlement of almost £4 billion by security services to create an undercover intelligence network in Ukraine.

Surkov – the former deputy prime minister of Russia – is credited with helping to keep Putin in power by masterminding the country’s entire political system.

He created “opposition” political parties that, in reality, were controlled by the Kremlin, while also founding Nashi, the Russian equivalent of the Hitler Youth, who would beat up supporters of those very same parties.

Once a week, he would meet with the heads of Russia’s TV channels, instructing them who to attack and who to support.

Describing his propaganda mission in June last year, Surkov told the : “People need it. Most people need their heads to be filled with thoughts.

“You are not going to feed people with some highly intellectual discourse. Most people eat simple foods… Generally, most people consume very simple-meaning beliefs.

“This is normal. There is haute cuisine, and there is McDonald’s.”

Surkov also encouraged Putin to believe that Ukraine is not a real country, and previously called for Russia to annex not only Ukraine, but Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as well.

He was fired in February 2020 over reported policy differences at the Kremlin, but his arrest appears to be a further sign that Putin is turning on his former allies.

His detention is said to be linked to the arrest of senior security service figure Col-Gen Sergei Beseda, now being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.

Putin is believed to be furious at intelligence failings in Ukraine, following years of investment to supposedly ensure Russian support in key places.

Russian media outlet Buninskaya Alleya reported: “More and more sources report that Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest.

“Investigative measures have been carried out allegedly in the case of embezzlement in the Donbas since 2014.

“It was Surkov who was the representative of the Russian President in Ukraine.”

It was Surkov who was the representative of the Russian President in Ukraine

Buninskaya AlleyaRussian media outlet

Surkov is also a close ally of Chechnya’s warlord leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whose intervention in Ukraine has caused huge splits in Putin’s inner circle.

Kadyrov, as a Lt-Gen in the Russian national guard, has demanded that Putin invade all of Ukraine, sometimes directly contradicting statements by Russia’s government.

Surkov, who has been described as Putin’s “main ideologist”, was former deputy head of the Russian presidential administration between 1999 and 2011.

He is credited with coming up with the idea of “sovereign democracy” as a cover for authoritarianism.

Surkov masterminded the original annexation of Crimea in 2014, after calling for the defence of Russians who live beyond the country’s borders.

He once described the Russian world as “everywhere where people speak Russian and think like Russians, or where they respect Russian culture”.

Surkov also said about Ukraine: “There is no Ukraine. There is Ukrainness.

“That is, a specific mental disorder. An amazing enthusiasm for ethnography, taken to an extreme.”

This is the same line taken by Putin to justify his original invasion.

His arrest comes as reports swirl that Putin is “bracing for a military coup” after purging 150 spies over Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine.

An increasingly-paranoid Putin has been looking for someone to blame as his planned invasion becomes bogged down in a quagmire.

He is said to be desperate to achieve some sort of military success in time for Victory Day on May 9, one of the most significant days in Russia’s calendar, when an annual parade will be held in Moscow’s Red Square.

Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB spy now living in exile in the UK, said Putin is now “completely losing his mind” over the state of the Ukraine war.

The ex-double agent, 62, told The Sun Online: “Putin lost the war before he even started it – and it happened a long time before this maniac idea flew into his sick head.

“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.”