Vladimir Putin has stashed billions of pounds of cash and gold in an African country in case he needs to flee Russia, it was claimed today.
The total value of his escape fund hidden in “underground warehouses” in the landlocked country is reported as £12.3billion.
It is reportedly under the close protection of the Wagner private military company - a Russian mercenary army which is loyal to Putin - in the Central African Republic.
Wagner is also crucial to 70-year-old Putin’s flagging war in Ukraine, having recruited tens of thousands of mercenaries and convicts for the frontline.
Official state media in Russia say that Putin - who has skipped the G-20 summit in Bali - took time out to speak to Faustin Arcange Touadéra, president of the African state, on Friday.
“The presidents expressed the shared intention to intensify bilateral political, trade and economic cooperation, including in the fuel and energy sector,” said a statement from the Russian government.
But General SVR Telegram channel said Putin’s real aim in the call was to verify “the loyalty” of the African leader.
Putin “hinted at his possible visit in the near future” to capital Bangui.
The channel made the astonishing claim that Putin “considers the Central African Republic as one of two options for evacuation in an emergency situation for himself and his loved ones, outside the territory of the Russian Federation".
His entourage is believed to include his long time partner Alina Kabaeva, 39, a gold-medal winning rhythmic gymnast, who he has never acknowledged as the Russian first lady.
The couple are widely believed to have several unacknowledged children.
“Now Putin considers the possibility of evacuation as realistic, so it is important for him to understand that there are options and they are quite feasible.”
The channel did not say which other country Putin might see as a viable bolthole if his Kremlin is engulfed in revolution.
But it claimed without specific details that three Russian journalists were murdered four years ago while “looking for confirmation of information about the storage bases for money and material assets belonging to Putin”.
The Wagner private army is known to have acted to assist Touadéra’s grip on power.
Citing “insider information”, the anonymous General SVR channel has long claimed that Putin is suffering from abdominal cancer, Parkinson’s disease and a schizoaffective disorder.
Its claims of Kremlin sources are impossible to verify.
Yet it predicted in advance the shape of Putin's mobilisation strategy.
It is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.
The channel has claimed that Putin is seeking to ban it but has so far failed.
