Potential coup leaders are lining up to overthrow a Vladimir Putin whose power over Russia is waning, experts have suggested.
There is reported discontent with the war among personnel in the GRU military intelligence and the FSB counterintelligence agency, two of Putin's key security services.
An anonymous high-ranking source in the GRU said high ranking figures are "tired" of the 'special military operation' in neighbouring Ukraine.
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"Everyone in the Ministry of Defence and in the government as a whole is already tired of this war and would like to stop it," the source said.
They added: “You can feel the discontent, so I expected something similar could happen by autumn.
“The fact that Prigozhin turned out to be at the head of the rebellion is surprising, but he would never have done such a thing if he had not understood that there would be those in the GRU leadership who would support him.”
The source suggested that had Prigozhin marched on Moscow – as he had threatened – his coup would likely have succeeded.
“Ten thousand motivated people are stronger than a hundred thousand unmotivated people,” he said.
Putin’s subsequent meeting with Prigozhin, and the failure to punish a man he had branded a “traitor” over the uprising, shows the Kremlin leader’s weakness.
“Now everyone is convinced of how easily and without a fight you can take power, so there may be many who want to,” said the GRU source.
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“Everyone saw that, in fact, no-one stood up for Putin.
“What until recently was considered by many to be absolutely impossible almost succeeded, and now many may want to repeat it again.”
It comes as anti-Putin campaigner Mikhail Khodorkovsky – now exiled in Britain – has forecast a new putsch by next year, and called on the opposition to take up arms against the Russian dictator.
“This regime has to be removed in the way that it can be removed – by force,” he said.
He suggested he was ready to seek to organise such a revolt.
“In order for it to happen, a split within the regime must happen,” he said.
“The regime has to fight itself…at that moment the power can be and should be seized."
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