Agentstvo says leaked texts appear to show spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling Russia’s replacement Navy Day event “safer.” Mikhail Babich questioned its format and was told Moscow had not scripted Kazakhstan’s president’s televised call urging Putin to end the war.
The usual Navy Day parade featured 200 warships on the Neva River in St. Petersburg. In July, Putin instead posed in front of a giant submarine poster and held a televised meeting with Navy personnel.
The Daily Beast also cites a report that Putin increased staffing at the central headquarters of Russia’s Federal Protective Service last month amid killings of senior military officers; Financial Times sources say he spends increasing amounts of time in underground bunkers, sometimes for several weeks.
