Kathrine Frich
Russian President Vladimir Putin is terrified of being assassinated
When powerful leaders stay in charge for decades, the walls around them tend to grow higher.
Trust becomes a rare commodity at the very top, and everyday paranoia can slowly turn a palace into a fortress.
Behind closed doors, that isolation can reshape how a country fights its battles.
Trapped in a bubble
Russian President Vladimir Putin is terrified of being assassinated and is cutting himself off from reality, Czech President Petr Pavel told the German newspaper Bild.
Because of that paranoia, the Russian leader is getting a warped view of conditions inside Russia and on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Pavel, who once led the Czech Army’s General Staff and chaired the NATO Military Committee, warned that this blind spot makes peace harder to reach and puts Europe in greater danger.
“He trusts few people. Furthermore, he has an almost obsessive fear of death. And when he surrounds himself with only a limited number of people, they can effectively filter the information they deem necessary to convey,” the Czech president stated in his interview with Bild.
Strict guard rules around the Kremlin back up those claims. Since 2022, Russia’s Federal Protective Service, the agency that guards top officials, has grown its leadership ranks and limited who can get near the president, Bild noted.
And according to the Ukrainian news outlet TSN, visitors meeting Putin from spring 2026 must hand over both their mobile phones and their wristwatches before entering the room.
A long war ahead
Being cut off from honest updates may explain why Putin still thinks he can win what Moscow calls its “special military operation,” Pavel told Bild.
In reality, the war is draining Russia’s economy and costing huge numbers of troops. Even so, the Czech leader warned that the fighting could drag on as a brutal trench stalemate where neither side can score a knockout blow.
Moscow is betting that time will wear down Ukrainian civilians and splinter European support. As attacks ruin daily life across Ukraine, Pavel noted, a fresh wave of refugees could soon head toward European borders.
Western allies also share some blame for the current mess, according to the Czech president. Speaking with Bild, he argued that slow, divided choices over weapons shipments have already cost Ukraine both land and soldiers’ lives.
That hesitation only invites further Russian aggression, Pavel warned, pointing to ongoing sabotage plots meant to shake public faith in Western institutions and divide NATO and the EU.
