It is widely known that Russia President Vladimir Putin has long had a coterie of body doubles to avoid assassination attempts.
Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine military intelligence, has claimed in the recent past that he was using at least three body doubles who have had plastic surgery to look like him. Budanov goes farther in expressing his doubts about Putin: “The big question is whether the real Putin still exists?”
Now reportedly Putin is planning on using his doppelgangers to avoid arrest after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant, charging him with war crimes.
Kremlin insiders are saying the 70-year-old president is ordering hundreds of more doubles in what is being called an “ultra paranoid” episode amid the recent charges levied against him.
The International Criminal Court sent out the warrants for Putin and “chief child catcher” Maria Lvova-Belova arrest after a video of them surfaced discussing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Lvova-Belova boasted about “adopting” a 15-year-old Mariupol boy to the Russian president in a TV interview last month. Putin gave his approval, and the child is believed to be within Russian borders.
Kidnapping a child of the enemy is considered a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions.
One of the Kremlin’s top generals said, “Putin is terrified there is a plot to kidnap him and place him outside of Russia so he can be arrested on war crimes charges and made to face court.”
Putin fears a “Nuremberg-like justice” in the same way the Nazis did after World War II.
At Nuremberg, many of Adolf Hitler’s top generals and scientists faced charges of crimes against humanity for starting the war and the Holocaust. A number of those tried were hanged or served life in prison for their crimes.
Dr. Miracle Chinwenmeri Uche, from the University of Exeter Law School, referred to the arrest warrant as, “a reminder that alleged perpetrators who occupy powerful positions are not immune from accountability.”
The ICC does not have the arresting force to carry out the warrant, but over 120 nations have agreed to hand over the Russian tyrant if he ever sets foot in their country.
