Putin's Planning for Retirement, Has Eyes on 3 Successors: Ex-Speechwriter

Russian President Vladimir Putin could opt for retirement and choose a hand-picked successor rather than run in the next election, according to a former speechwriter for the leader.

Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst who once worked as a speechwriter for Putin, made the claims about his ex-boss during an interview on the Khodorkovsky Live YouTube channel.

Due to the growing unpopularity of the war, Gallyamov said Putin could face a greater challenge at the polls during the next election in 2024. An option for the leader could be to "rig the elections," but that could be "too big of a risk" due to a growing revolutionary mindset within Russia, Gallyamov said.

Instead, Gallyamov feels Putin could pick his heir and retire. Gallyamov said the leading choices of who Putin would trust as his successor would be Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin or his Deputy Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak.

Gallyamov said that retirement would allow Putin to spend the rest of his years in a palace in the Black Sea resort town Gelendzhik while holding the title of senator-for-life. (Current Russian laws allow former presidents to take the permanent senator distinction.)

The political analyst also said there's an increasing sense among Russian officials that Putin is no longer viewed as the "guarantor of stability" that he once was, and people in Putin's circle are not happy about the power of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenaries.

Gallyamov said these Putin allies fear Prigozhin and his sledgehammer. The reference to the tool comes after an unverified video surfaced in November that allegedly showed a former Wagner mercenary being executed with a sledgehammer.

Reuters reported that Prigozhin commented about the video on Telegram by saying the man had "betrayed his people."

Despite Gallyamov's comments about Putin possibly retiring, George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government professor Mark N. Katz told Newsweek that he doesn't "think Putin trusts anyone enough" to hand over the reins.

"I don't think he would even switch places as he did with [former Russian President Dmitry] Medvedev in 2008 to 2012," Katz said. "But I imagine there are several people who hope to succeed him. It might be easier to keep them under control if they can all still hope to get the nod from Putin, while actually giving someone the nod could unleash a power struggle."

Gallyamov said that if Putin retires, he could avoid a fate like that of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator who was killed and had his body put on public display.

"At least Putin will have guarantees of personal security" in retirement, Gallyamov said.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.