PUTIN'S PURGE

Paranoid despot may set hit squads on uprising plotters

- CHRIS HUGHES

PARANOID Vladimir Putin has stepped up his personal security amid fears he will launch a bloody purge against suspected plotters after last week's uprising in Russia.

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the abandoned rebellion, is said to be a "dead man walking" after going into exile in Belarus.

Some of Putin's defence officials who may be suspected of being too close to the mercenary leader could also soon be "disappeared", sources claim.

A number of senior Wagner Group executives and a handful of oligarchs have also been earmarked for the Russian president's hit squads, it is believed.