A Vladimir Putin war commander has survived an “assassination bid” by poisoning, it has emerged.
Major-General Apti Alaudinov, 50, received a letter saturated with an unknown deadly toxin.
He is commander of the Akhmat special forces unit, and deputy commander of the People’s Militia 2nd Army Corps in Luhansk.
Alaudinov is a close ally of Putin’s henchman Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord leader of Chechnya.
The general and two aides are now in hospital in Moscow recovering from the attack, said Kadyrov.
Alaudinov - a recipient of the Kremlin's highest honour, the Hero of Russia medal - has been involved in fighting in Ukraine where he commands troops from Chechnya.
“There is an investigation of the assassination attempt, identifying those involved,” said Kadyrov.
There were "already results" from this probe, he said.
The Chechen leader said Alaudinov acted quickly to “clean his hands and wash his nasal cavity”.
Kadyrov added: "All the poisoned were admitted to a medical unit, where, thanks to the skilled and competent actions of the head and two medical assistants - one of whom turned out to be a professional toxicologist - serious consequences were avoided.
“Now General Alaudinov and both adjutants are in a Moscow clinic and are on the mend.”
He revealed today that the alleged poisoning attack was on 8 February, but it is not clear where it happened.
A day earlier Putin propagandist Margarita Simonyan, 42, head of the RT state media empire, received a “suspicious” parcel which was examined by police and explosive experts.
Reports said it was eventually found not to contain a threat.
However, Simonyan revealed that she is under “state protection”.
In a suspected assassination, a pro-Putin spin doctor who notoriously waved the skull of a ‘dead Ukrainian’ fighter on stage in a sickening stunt died last week after he was shot in the head.
Igor Mangushev, 36, had been gravely wounded in hospital for several days after what his wife alleged was an act of “attempted murder” on Russian-held territory in Ukraine.
The sinister ultranationalist campaigner and propagandist turned fighter was seen in sickening footage on stage in August brandishing the reported skull of an Azov fighter declaring: “We’re alive and this guy is already dead.
"Let him burn in hell. He wasn’t lucky. We’ll make a goblet out of his skull.”
Mangushev was seen as close to Putin friend Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private army.
