Vladimir Putin 's inner circle are secretly " Hitler fans" while the President continues to insist he wants to "de-Nazify Ukraine ", a Russian political scientist has claimed.
Respected academic Dr Grigory Yudin has also accused the Kremlin leader of fighting “the most senseless war in history”.
Dr Yudin alleges Putin is deliberately copying the Nazi playbook with his 'Z' insignia, which he calls "half swastikas", in order to galvanise Russian support for the bloody conflict.
Speaking on Katerina Gordeeva's YouTube show Tell Gordeeva, he said: "They are half-swastikas.
“The people who are in charge of spreading this across the country know what these are. They clearly know what they are.
“There is not a percent of chance that this is a coincidence.
“When several months ago an acquaintance of mine with contacts among the authorities told me there are a lot of Hitler’s fans up there [around Putin], I didn’t believe it. Now I do.”
TV interviewer Katerina said this was “impossible”.
But Dr Yudin hit back: “It’s hard to believe it, but it’s definitely true.
“These people know what they are doing.
“They know what they are using, they knowingly gather the symbols, and they do it purposefully.”
He warned: “It’s clear the threat carried with those swastikas.”
Dr Yudin is a senior researcher in the Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology at the Higher School of Economics.
He heads Russia ’s first MA programme in political philosophy at the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences.
On 24 February 2022, he was beaten unconscious by police at a protest against a war he had called the most senseless in history and needed medical treatment.
He has also warned that Putin will institute “general mobilisation, wartime economy, [and] liquidation of property”.
Blame would be heaped on “internal Nazi agents” and the death penalty would be restored, he said.
“Borders will be closed — after all, there’s a war on,” he said.
If dismay reached the ruling circles then “the risks for Putin are obvious".
“The whole thing starts to look like an unhinged escapade with terrifying consequences and inescapable defeat on the horizon," he explained.
“Which is why we’re at a turning point: the world we’re living in right now won’t survive for very long at all.”
Dr Yudin recently voted to continue criticising the war despite the repressive measures imposed in Russia for speaking out against a bloody conflict that has cost thousands of lives.
