War lord Vladimir Putin is currently living in a massive underground city protected from potential nuclear attacks that can house up to 100,000 people, it has been claimed.
The academic who first alleged the Kremlin leader is seriously ill alleges the Russian president has retreated to a vast nuclear bunker as he lives in fear of his enemies.
Professor Valery Solovey, 61, also claims the dictator is unlikely to remain in politics beyond the end of this year due to poor health.
He also alleged in an online TV interview with a Latvian channel that Putin's supposed lover - Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva - is not in a Swiss bolthole as reported, but in a “secure location” in Russia.
Putin was seen today six time zones east of Moscow at the new Vostochny spaceport, alongside his ally, brutal Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin's movements across Russia are now a tightly held secret, and while his arrival was announced early this morning in Blagoveshchensk, close to the Chinese border, his departure and routings were not disclosed.
A day earlier he was in Moscow for a frosty meeting with Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer.
Solovey - who claims to have high-level Kremlin insider sources - has long alleged Putin suffers from cancer and other medical conditions, a theory for which he has provided no hard evidence.
But he was backed up earlier this month by an investigation from independent Project media that showed Putin is followed everywhere by a vast medical team, including oncology specialists. Some of the doctors were named.
Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu often “vanish to bomb shelters east of the Urals, nuclear bomb shelters,” said Solovey.
“Putin spends most of his time there. There are several of them, with the key one where Putin stays - able to fit up to 100,000 people.”
The facility is intended to house Russian survivors in the event of Armageddon.
Separate claims have suggested a location close to a major Gazprom facility in the far north of Russia.
Solovey last month suggested Putin hid his family in a hi-tech bunker in the Altai Mountains, but it was not clear if his latest claim relates to the same place.
“The one where [General Valery Gerasimov and Shoigu] stays can fit up to 50,000 people. It’s up to one kilometre deep,” he said.
Gerasimov is chief of the armed forces general staff and rumours suggest he has gained in influence with Putin over the war, while Shoigu’s sway has waned.
On the alleged illnesses, Solovey has claimed Putin is suffering abdominal cancer and early stage Parkinson’s Disease, while Proekt suggested he has thyroid cancer.
He told interviewer Vadim Rodionov on Riga-based Russian language YouTube channel ‘I Gryanul Grem’: “Vladimir Putin’s real health issues started between 2019 and 2020, and these really were serious problems - by which I don’t mean issues with thyroid, for example, thyroid cancer.”
The presenter asked him: “Speaking more about these problems, how long does Vladimir have? Is it a fatal disease or a chronic disease, or…?”
Solovey, linked to General SVR channel, said: “He has several of them, there is the whole bouquet of them, and one fatal illness.
He reiterated his forecast that Putin would be forced to quit politics at some point this year.
“I didn’t say he’ll finish his earthly existence, these are different things,” he said.
“I said he won’t be in politics in [by the end of] 2022, and as far as I know nothing changed in this regard.”
Solovey claims Putin has a secret family with former gold-medal winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Rumours have variously placed her as hiding in a secluded Swiss chalet or in a Siberian bunker.
“I strongly doubt Alina Kabaeva was hiding in Switzerland,” said Solovey in the interview which has been seen more than one million times.
“According to my information she’s been in the Russian Federation, in an absolutely secure location. I have no doubt the Russian president will do everything possible and even impossible to secure his family.
“Should they need to be abroad, it definitely won’t be Switzerland.… Right now, they are safe in Russia, as far as I know…”
He said there was another friendly country - which he did not name - where Putin might send his family should they be deemed at risk in Russia.
In February, Solovey was held for a seven hour interrogation apparently linked to General SVR Telegram channel, which has published multiple allegations about Putin’s supposed medical and mental condition.
Solovoy was a professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) - attended by future top diplomats and spies.
