WW3 fears explode as Putin warned of ‘UK assassination bid’ during Trump meeting | World | News
Vladimir Putin has been warned of a bizarre “British assassination plot” if he travels to Hungary to meet Donald Trump. Russian foreign intelligence colonel Andrey Bezrukov, a former illegal SVR agent working undercover in the United States, warned the Russian dictator: “Do not go to Budapest.”
He called for the expected meeting with Mr Trump to be urgently moved to Dubai to avoid what the British described as an “absolutely treacherous operation”. “I have very, very serious concerns about Budapest,” said Mr. Bezrukov, whose identity was revealed in 2010 when Russian spy Anna Chapman, then a British citizen, was detained by the FBI. Both were part of a spy swap involving 10 Russian agents that same year, and Mr. Bezrukov, 65, is now a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. [MGIMO]he also works as a consultant for state oil giant Rosneft. Bezrukov said in a speech on Russian state television that the “whole mentality” of the British is “structured in such a way that if there is no Putin, there will be no problem… first of all, Russia will fall apart.”
He claimed that the ruling class in London “realises that Britain may soon cease to exist”. “The bottom line is that the elite within it, which was a very, very organized gang, is losing its power, not because it’s doing a bad job, but because the country itself has changed so fundamentally that it’s melting away.
“And for them, a blow to us is a decision, including an absolutely treacherous operation that can be carried out on the basis of this meeting in Budapest.”
Without offering any evidence, he continued his claim: “And they’re going to take it. They’re going to risk everything because they’re risking everything now.”
“And so I strongly advise against [Putin going to Budapest].”
Mr. Bezrukov offered no evidence of his claim against the British.
He was then asked by Vladimir Solovyov, President Putin’s leading television propagandist, how the risk of assassination could be avoided.
“There is a wonderful country called the United Arab Emirates [which could host the Trump-Putin talks]he said.
Mr. Solovyov claimed that Mr. Putin was brave enough to risk going to Budapest.
Mr. Bezrukov replied: “Sometimes this is not good… Commander-in-Chief [Putin] He represents the country and here the interests of the country are more important than the courage of one person…”
Mr Bezrukov was a KGB and SVR spy who worked as an illegal ‘sleeper agent’ under the alias Donald Howard Heathfield alongside his wife and fellow agent Elena Vavilova, 62, known as Tracey Ann Foley. He is also a member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and has been given the lucrative post of advisor to Putin’s close friend Igor Sechin, chairman of oil giant Rosneft.
The undercover couple had moved from Canada to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and raised two sons, Timothy and Alexander, who had no idea their parents were spies. Their son now has a Canadian passport. Surprisingly, according to espionage expert Sergey Kanev, since being unmasked, Bezrukov has traveled to the UK using a second passport from Cyprus.
Putin’s visit to Budapest will be his first since the start of the war against Ukraine in February 2022.
Hungary assured Moscow that it would not consider the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court if the dictator went to Budapest. The arrest warrant relates to Putin’s alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territories, which is considered a war crime.
