As soon as the Wagner coup started, Ukrainian social media was full of memes of Vladimir Putin saying ‘I don’t need ammo, I need a ride’ – the inverse of Volodymyr Zelensky’s quip when tanks moved towards Kyiv. But is there any truth in it? Did Putin – or his allies – flee Moscow at news of trenches being dug around the capital, while the Wagner Group were 200km away? The Kremlin says not, but there was plenty of suspicious activity to suggest otherwise.
The independent Russian investigative media organisation Important Stories reported some notable movement: Putin’s personal jet plane, an Ilyushin Il96-300-PU, took off in the direction of St Petersburg shortly after 2:15 p.m. local time. Crediting data taken from the Flight Tracker website, they said the plane then disappeared from radar after 106 miles, in the region of the city of Tver to the north-west of Russia (close to the President’s countryside home). According to the independent news site Meduza, the plane is kitted out with special communications equipment to enable direct contact with the army during travel.
The Kremlin was quick to deny that Putin had left Moscow, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claiming he was hard at work inside the Kremlin. It’s impossible to verify, but it’s striking that they have had to issues these denials. The spokesman of Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian security council’s deputy chairman, said the same: that he’s in Moscow. The idea that both could flee is clearly all too credible for Russians.
Whether or not Putin was on board the plane, the aircraft is known to be Putin’s favourite of the presidential fleet. It is notable that following drone strikes on the Kremlin last month, the Russian government issued a similar statement claiming it was business as usual.
The presidential plane was not the only one spotted leaving Moscow. At least three others were tracked leaving the city’s airports and heading in the direction of St Petersburg. According to open source investigators the Dossier Centre, one of the planes was also carrying special equipment for communicating with the army and disappeared from radar on the approach to Pulkovo airport. One investigative Telegram channel has speculated that government powers could be transferred from Moscow to St Petersburg until the threat to the Russian capital has passed.
Members of Putin’s inner circle such as the oligarchs Arkady Rotenberg and Vladimir Potanin bolted to Baku and Istanbul respectively. Ksenia Shoigu, the daughter of the minister of defence against whom Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed to be directing his coup, is also reported to have fled to Dubai with her husband.
At the beginning of the year, anti-aircraft systems were installed on Moscow’s rooftops, designed to shoot down any missiles aimed at the city. But whether they will be put to use against Prigozhin’s forces remains to be seen. When the invasion of Ukraine started, Russia ended up having to dig trenches around Crimea: that the same had to be done around Moscow will give many in Putin’s inner circle time to reflect on just how badly this has all gone.
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