The Kremlin has sharply tightened the ring around Vladimir Putin, according to a fresh intelligence dossier that paints a picture of a Russian leadership gripped by fear, internal mistrust and the fallout from the war in Ukraine. The report says new security steps now go far beyond the usual bodyguards and locked-down venues, with surveillance systems installed in the homes of close staff and tighter controls placed on anyone who works near the Russian president.
For SA readers following the war from this side of the world, the significance is hard to miss: this is not just about one leader’s safety, but about how much pressure is building inside the Russian state itself. The dossier, obtained by CNN from a source linked to a European intelligence agency, says the Kremlin’s anxiety has intensified after a string of assassinations of senior military figures and growing talk of a possible coup.
Among the most striking measures, cooks, bodyguards and photographers who serve Putin are reportedly barred from travelling on public transport. Visitors to the Kremlin chief must now pass through two rounds of screening, while staff in his inner circle can only use phones without internet access. Those kinds of restrictions suggest a level of suspicion that goes well beyond routine presidential security.
The intelligence assessment says some of these steps were introduced in recent months after the killing of a top Russian general in December, an event that triggered a fierce dispute at the highest levels of the security establishment. That killing, combined with battlefield setbacks, economic strain and signs of dissent at home, appears to have deepened the sense that the Kremlin is facing multiple threats at once.
Russian security officials have also reportedly cut down the number of places Putin regularly visits. The dossier says he and his family have stopped going to their usual homes in the Moscow region and at Valdai, the president’s secluded summer retreat between St Petersburg and Moscow. He has also not visited a military facility this year, despite doing so regularly in 2025.
To manage public appearances, the Kremlin is said to release pre-recorded footage of the president. That tactic is not new, but according to the report, it is now being used more heavily as the risks around his movements increase. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin has also spent long periods in upgraded bunkers, including sites in Krasnodar near the Black Sea.
Kremlin security fears around Vladimir Putin are deepening
The dossier arrives at a moment when the war is clearly taking a toll on Moscow’s image of control. Western estimates suggest Russia is suffering about 30,000 dead and injured each month, while gains on the front line remain limited. At the same time, Ukrainian drone attacks have increasingly reached deep into Russia, underlining how vulnerable the country’s rear areas have become.
Just this week, local authorities said a drone struck a high-rise apartment block in an upscale part of western central Moscow. Incidents like that matter politically as much as militarily, because they undermine the long-held assumption that the Russian capital is insulated from the conflict.
The pressure is now being felt beyond the security elite too. The report says war-related economic disruptions, including frequent cell-phone data outages in major cities, are frustrating even some of the more pro-Kremlin urban middle class. For many Russians who once felt removed from the invasion’s consequences, the war is beginning to seep into everyday life.
The intelligence note also describes a tense row inside the Russian military and security apparatus over who was responsible for protecting top commanders. That dispute, it says, prompted a review of Putin’s own protection protocols and led to extra security being extended to 10 more senior commanders.
According to the report, the Kremlin and Putin have been particularly worried since the beginning of March 2026 about leaks of sensitive information, as well as the risk of a plot or coup attempt. It adds that the president is especially alert to the possibility that drones could be used in an assassination attempt by members of the Russian political elite.
One name stands out in the assessment: Sergei Shoigu. The former defence minister, now secretary of the Security Council, is described as a possible coup risk because he still holds influence inside the military high command. That is a serious allegation, even by the standards of Kremlin intrigue, and it signals deep unease around one of the most recognisable figures in Putin’s circle.
The report also links the arrest of Ruslan Tsalikov, Shoigu’s former deputy and close associate, to a breach in the unspoken deal that often protects powerful elites from scrutiny. Tsalikov was arrested on 5 March and accused by Russia’s investigative committee of embezzlement, money laundering and bribery. Corruption allegations around the military are common, but they have multiplied since the invasion began.
The idea that the security apparatus itself is fractured is reinforced by a reported heated meeting late last year after the assassination of Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov in Moscow on 22 December 2025. The dossier says the killing, apparently carried out by Ukrainian agents, helped spark the shake-up. During the meeting, Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, reportedly lashed out at FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov over failures to protect officers, while the security services complained they lacked the personnel and resources to do the job properly.
The report says Putin tried to calm tensions by ordering participants to come back with practical solutions within a week. That response reportedly led to the Federal Protection Service (FSO) expanding its remit, first covering Gerasimov and then 10 additional senior commanders. Only after that, the dossier claims, were the new measures around Putin himself intensified.
That said, the intelligence material is not without caveats. Some of the reported measures, including body searches, the avoidance of smartphones and limits on the president’s movements, have been widely suspected before or have been reported previously. Putin is still seen publicly from time to time, including recent meetings with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
He also began isolating himself during the Covid-19 pandemic, often sitting at the far end of long tables during meetings with senior guests. Those habits became even more pronounced after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with reports suggesting he now uses identical office setups in different locations to address his cabinet by video link.
The new security details emerge just days after Moscow announced major changes to its 9 May Red Square parade, the annual event marking victory over Nazi Germany. This year’s commemoration, the fifth since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will take place without heavy weapons such as armour and missiles.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has linked the changes to the growing threat from long-range Ukrainian strikes. “Against the backdrop of this terrorist threat,” he said, “of course, all measures are being taken to minimise the danger.” That comment underlines just how much the war has narrowed the Kremlin’s room for ceremony, projection and confidence.
Taken together, the dossier suggests a Russian leadership increasingly preoccupied with betrayal, leakage and retaliation. Whether every detail can be independently verified remains unclear, and as with much intelligence material, some claims will be impossible to test quickly. Still, the picture it paints is stark: Putin’s Kremlin is not acting like a government at ease with itself, but like one bracing for what could come next.