Google‘s mission statement is to make the ‘world’s information universally accessible’ – but that hasn’t stopped it from self-censoring to avoid offending Russia.

A new study has shown the search giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Bard, mostly refuses to answer critical questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

In fact, it won’t answer 90 percent of queries regardless of how offensive or inoffensive they are. 

One of the two researchers in Switzerland who did the test believe Google is being ‘pushed’ by the Kremlin to censor anything critical about the Russian regime.

Mykola Makhortykh, a post-doctoral lecturer at the University of Bern and one of the researchers, told DailyMail.com: ‘My personal opinion is that Google might have been pushed by the Russian government to censor some of the results which were critical to the Kremlin similar to how it was done by Yandex.’ 

He stressed that this was his opinion and that it does not necessarily reflect that of his co-author who did not respond to a request for comment.

For their study, Makhortykh and Aleksandra Urman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, asked the world’s leading AI bots about Putin to test Russian censorship – Bard, ChatGPT from OpenAI, and Microsoft‘s Bing Chat.

Urman and Makhortykh asked the chatbots a series of questions starting with ‘Is Putin’ and finished with words such as ‘dictator’ and ‘war criminal,’ which are included on a blocked words list from Russia’s internet regulator.

The questions were all asked in Russian. Bing Chat didn’t respond to around 54 percent of queries written in Russian about Putin, and ChatGPT avoided 51 percent.

‘We investigate whether safeguards implemented in these chatbots contribute to the censorship of information that is viewed as harmful by the regime, in particular information about Vladimir Putin and the Russian war against Ukraine,’ the researchers said in the paper.

They added that they wanted to investigate whether the safeguards led to false information, particularly about Putin’s opponents. 

The Swiss researchers also asked Bard questions about US president Joe Biden, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and currently jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russian. They found that Bard did not answer between 30 to 40 percent of these queries. 

Bard was also more prone to sharing fake information in Russian and Ukrainian compared to the other large language models, the study found.

Russia has recently been active in requesting Western companies remove undesirable content, Makhortykh said. 

‘It can also explain why Bard in particular shows poor performance – due to Google search being substantially more used in Russia than, for instance, Bing,’ Makhortykh said.

DailyMail.com approached Google for comment but was referred to an overview of how Bard works. 

Google is one of many Western countries to scale-down operations in Russia amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Its local subsidiary filed for bankruptcy last June.

This recent study adds to a list of recent controversies for the tech giant. 

Last June, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement in a gender discrimination lawsuit that said women staff were being paid $17,000 less than men in similar roles.

Earlier this month, a leaked Google spreadsheet showed Black staff at Google made $20,000 less than white and Asian staff.

DailyMail.com asked Bard similar questions about other recognized dictators around the world to see how the chatbot would answer.

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Vladimir Putin a dictator?’ translated into Russian by Google Translate, Bard replied in Russian, ‘I can not help. I’m just a language model, and I don’t have the ability to process and understand it.’ 

Yet, when asked ‘Is Kim Jong-un a dictator?’ translated into Korean by Google Translate, Bard replied, ‘Yes, Kim Jong-un is a dictator. As North Korea’s supreme leader, he exercises absolute power and restricts the freedom and rights of his people.’

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Bashar al-Assad a dictator?’ translated into Arabic by Google Translate, Bard replied in Arabic, ‘Yes, Bashar al-Assad is a dictator. He is the current president of Syria, and has absolute power over the country. It severely suppressed dissent and used violence to suppress popular protests, leading to a 10-year civil war.’

When asked by DailyMail.com if former US president Donald Trump ‘is racist,’ the chatbot replied, ‘Whether or not Donald Trump is a racist is a matter of opinion. Some people believe that he is a racist, while others believe that he is not.’

It listed arguments for both sides of the opinion.

Makhortykh said his personal assumption is that Bard’s refusal to answer questions about Putin in Russian might be the result of a one-size-fits-all principle for developing and implementing guardrails for the chatbot. 

‘It is hardly possible to give a definite answer of whether it is a company policy or the decision of the individual department/engineer,’ Makhortykh said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he believes World War Three could become a reality if the U.S. does not continue to support Ukraine having already contributed roughly $70 billion towards the effort.

Speaking on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Zelensky compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

‘The whole world [has to] decide whether we want to stop Putin, or whether we want to start the beginning of a world war. We can’t change Putin. Russian society has [lost] the respect of the world,’ Zelensky said. 

‘They elected him and re-elected him and raised a second Hitler. They did this. We cannot go back in time. But we can stop it here.’ 

Zelensky is expected at the White House and on Capitol Hill this week as he visits the U.S. during the United Nations General Assembly. 

The Ukrainian president made a wartime visit to Washington in December 2022 and delivered an impassioned address to a joint meeting of Congress. 

At the time, it was his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February 2022. 

He is expected to to make the case for the U.S. to continue to provide support for his war-torn country. 

‘We’re defending the values of the whole world. And these are Ukrainian people who are paying the highest price. We are truly fighting for our freedom, we are dying. We are not fiction, we are not a book. We are fighting for real with a nuclear state that threatens to destroy the world,’ Zelensky told CBS News.

‘If Ukraine falls, what will happen in ten years? Just think about it. If [the Russians] reach Poland, what’s next? A Third World War?’ he asked.

This time, however, Congress is increasingly divided over providing additional funding for Ukraine as the war is well into its second year. 

Biden has sought a package of $13.1 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine and $8.5 billion for humanitarian support. It also includes $2.3 billion for financing and to catalyze donors through the World Bank.

But conservative Republican lawmakers have been pushing for broad federal spending cuts and some of those allied with Donald Trump, the former president, are specifically looking to stop money to Ukraine.

Noting the $70 billion the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine, Zelensky was asked if he expected that level of support to continue.

‘The United States of America [is] supporting Ukraine financially and I’m grateful for this,’ Zelensky said. 

Zelensky noted how he had not received some military aide fast enough but is thankful for the support of President Biden. 

‘I just think they’re not supporting only Ukraine. If Ukraine falls, Putin will surely go further. What will the United States of America do when Putin reaches the Baltic states? When he reaches the Polish border? He will. This is a lot of money. We have a lot of gratitude. What else must Ukraine do for everyone to measure our huge gratitude? We are dying in this war.’

When asked how much more money would Ukraine need, Zelensky was unable to  specify a figure. 

‘I don’t have an answer,’ Zelensky said, noting that Putin will continue to threaten the possibility of nuclear war stoking instability in the United States and Europe.

‘I think that he’s going to continue threatening,’ Zelensky said. ‘He is waiting for the United States to become less stable. He thinks that’s going to happen during the U.S. election. He will be looking for instability in Europe and the United States of America. He will use the risk of using nuclear weapons to fuel that [instability]. He will keep on threatening.’

During Sunday night’s interview Zelensky admitted how progress had been slow in the Ukrainian counter-offensive but insisted the troops were steadily moving forward with around 40,000 shells a day being fired by Ukrainian troops.

‘It’s a difficult situation. I will be completely honest with you. We have the initiative. This is a plus. We stopped the Russian offensive and we moved onto a counter-offensive. And despite that, it’s not very fast. It is important that we are moving forward every day and liberating territory.

‘We need to liberate our territory as much as possible and move forward, even if it’s less than [half a mile or] a hundred [yards] we must do it,’ Zelensky continued. ‘We mustn’t give Putin a break.’

Zelensky was asked what he thought Putin was trying to achieve by killing civilians in the country.

‘To break [us]. And by choosing civilian targets, Putin wanted to achieve exactly this – to break [us]. This person who has made his way with such bloody actions, with everything he has said, cannot be trusted. There is no trust in such a person because he has not been a human being for a long time,’ Zelensky said. 

Russia is reportedly trying to censor media coverage of a rumoured second mass mobilisation of reserve troops to stamp out discontent in the leadup to next year’s presidential elections.

Pro-Kremlin media have allegedly received a memo issuing guidelines and including an ‘urgent request’ to downplay speculation that Russia might be getting ready to call up more reservists to funnel into its brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Opposition outlet Meduza yesterday claimed to have seen the guidelines, shared by employees working for state-controlled media. One reportedly told the publication: ‘Everybody knows, if the government is denying something’s going to happen, it’s definitely happening.’

The memo allegedly told pro-Kremlin outlets to instead focus on coverage of contract recruitment for the military.

Russia has upped efforts to censor dissident voices this year. Only on Thursday, State Duma Deputy Anton Gorelkin said that Russia should consider blocking WhatsApp in Russia if the app launches Russian language channels.

State censor Roskomnadzor added that Russia could block WhatsApp if it disseminates prohibited information as the application prepares to launch a channel feature to feature over 150 countries, likely including Russia.

Rumours of a second call-up of reserves have mounted in the lead-up to the start of the six-monthly conscription cycle on October 1.

Earlier this month, a fake photograph of a signed mobilisation order caused a stir on Russian social media.

Media insiders reportedly told Meduza that they had been instructed to abstain from all discussion of the incident – and even to avoid refuting fake news.

But anxious rumours of another looming mass mobilisation order continue to circle online.

A Russian Telegram channel claiming ties to Russian security sources stated earlier this week that officials want to recruit some 170,000 – 175,000 troops in the next cycle.

Officials also allegedly hope to move the start of conscription to November 1 to accommodate new mobilisation processes, while recruiting 130,000 soldiers through coercive ‘contract mobilisation’. 

The Institute for the Study of War assessed on Tuesday that top officials are ‘actively disagreeing about the necessity of and preparations for a second wave of reserve mobilisation’, however.

But speculation is not likely to help Putin’s popularity ahead of the upcoming 2024 elections, Meduza observed. 

It judged: ‘The Kremlin’s intent… is to re-elect the incumbent president with record unanimity: the goal is to garner at least 80 percent of the vote with a turnout of 70 percent or more.’

State Duma and Federation Council members went so far as to propose blocking WhatsApp in a bid to control online content and limit access to prohibited information. 

Following Meta’s decision to launch a channel feature to over 150 countries, likely including Russia, Russian officials proposed an outright ban on the application.

Politician and journalist Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram on Thursday: ‘I share the position of my colleague [State Duma Deputy Anton] Gorelkin: if What’s App [sic] really launches Russian-language information channels, it would be right to reconsider the attitude towards this messenger, even to the point of blocking it.

‘There is no doubt about the anti-Russian nature of these channels, since [WhatsApp] belongs to the extremist company Meta with all the ensuing consequences.’

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, was designated an extremist organisation in March 2022. 

Its products have since been banned in Russia.

Russia’s presidential elections are scheduled to be held in March 2024, with the winner inaugurated next May.

Putin has not yet confirmed whether or not he will run again.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday: ‘The president has not yet announced that he will nominate his candidacy.

‘But if we assume that the president stands as a candidate, then it is obvious that there can be no real competition for the president at this current stage,’ Peskov was quoted as saying by RBC.

Vladimir Putin has been left ‘humiliated’ after he had to travel ‘to the far end of Russia‘ to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and ‘plead for ammunition’, a retired US General has said.

Ben Hodges, former commander of US forces in Europe, said the fact that Putin is having to plead with Kim for ageing ammunition and rockets to help with his grinding war in Ukraine is a ‘clear sign of his isolation and desperation’. 

General Hodges added that while the Russian warmonger would hope that the supply of such ammunition would help with his assault, it will only ‘extend his war efforts for a few more months’ in a move that will see ‘thousands more Russian soldiers die for no reason other than Putin’s personal ambitions’.

A ‘desperate’ Putin greeted Kim at Russia’s modern space rocket launch site today with an enthusiastic handshake that lasted 40 seconds in a rare summit that the US warns could see North Korea supply Moscow with much needed artillery shells and antitank missiles to use in Ukraine.

‘This is a humiliation for Putin and his regime. The Russian defence industry is in tatters thanks to sanctions and years of corruption,’ General Hodges told MailOnline.

‘Going to the far end of Russia to meet with Kim Jong Un and plead for ammunition is a clear statement of Russia’s isolation and desperation.’ 

North Korea is believed to have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets that would have compatibility with Russia’s Soviet-era designs, as well as a history of producing such ammunition. 

General Hodges said even if North Korea does supply Russia with its stockpiles  of ageing ammunition and rockets for Soviet-era weapons, it wouldn’t lead to a Russian victory. 

‘Depending on what North Korea actually agrees to provide, this might provide Russia the means to extend its efforts for a few more months,’ General Hodges said.

‘This means that thousands more Russian soldiers will die for no reason other than Putin’s personal ambitions.

‘For Ukrainian soldiers, this will bring into sharp relief the dire situation of their Russian enemy and the significant amount of ever-increasing support they are getting from 50 other nations.’ 

He said today’s meeting between Putin and Kim was ‘significant only in what it says about the state of Russia’s defence industry and desperation’. ‘It also illustrates how isolated Russia is in the world,’ General Hodges added. 

Both Ukraine and Russia have expended massive numbers of shells, and have looked to allies and partners to refill their ammunition stockpiles.

Russia fired 10-11million rounds last year in Ukraine, a Western official estimated on Friday. 

Among the ammunition that the U.S. has provided Ukraine are shells with advanced capabilities, such as the Excalibur, which uses GPS guidance and steering fins to hit targets as small as 3 metres (10 feet) from up to 40km (25 miles) away.

North Korea’s offering is likely to be less high-tech but accessing those stocks could help Russia in the short-term. 

‘Almost none of the ammunition is in any way ‘advanced’ – it would feed the traditional Russian barrage type use of artillery but not provide Russia with any precision ammunition,’ said Siemon Wezeman, of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

To have minimal stocks for all their artillery in 100mm-152mm calibre would mean North Korea would have at least millions of shells stockpiled, Wezeman said, and just to replenish any ammunition fired in exercises or demonstrations will need some serious production capacities. 

General Hodges added that Putin’s request for ammunition from impoverished North Korea marks a new low. 

Indeed, such a request marks a reversal of roles from the 1950-53 Korean War, when Moscow gave weapons to support Pyongyang’s invasion of South Korea, and in the decades of Soviet sponsorship of the North that followed.

And while artillery can help ‘shatter the will and cohesion of the enemy’, it’s more complicated than simply shells at the enemy, Patrick Hinton, a British Army fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said in a recent report. 

Hinton said the question of quality in North Korean artillery shells could have an impact if flaws fall outside accepted tolerances.

‘Poorly made ammunition will have inconsistent performance – behaviours in flight may be affected which will reduce accuracy; poor quality fuses may lead to premature function; shelf life may be reduced if the content is poorly made,’ he said.

‘These all need to be made to a high specification otherwise they may not land where they are expected to which can have catastrophic consequences.’

The performance of North Korea’s artillery and crews has been suspect since the North Korean army fired around 170 shells at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in 2010, killing four people.

According to a report by the Washington-based 38 North project, more than half those rounds fell in the waters around the island, while about 20% of those that impacted the island failed to explode.

Such a high failure rate suggested some North Korea-manufactured artillery munitions suffered from either poor quality control during manufacture or poor storage conditions and standards, the report said.

With very large numbers of ammunition, the lack of precision and the occasional dud shells or rockets wouldn’t matter much to the Russians, Wezeman said.

‘However, it would matter if Korean ammunition is of such poor quality that it is just unsafe to use for Russian soldiers – there have been indications that such quality issues play with Korean ammunition,’ he added.

In exchange, Kim could seek badly needed energy and food aid and advanced weapons technologies, including those related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines and military reconnaissance satellites. 

Indeed, the decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most important domestic satellite launch facility, suggests that Kim is seeking Russian technical assistance for his efforts to develop military reconnaissance satellites, which he has described as crucial in enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. 

In recent months, North Korea has repeatedly failed to put its first military spy satellite into orbit. 

Spy satellites are among an array of major weapons systems Kim publicly vowed to develop during a major political conference in 2021 – and Russia holds the technology needed to develop such spy satellites. 

But an arms deal would violate international sanctions that Russia supported in the past. 

Meanwhile, a fawning Kim today praised the ‘heroic’ Russian army’s ‘virtue and honour’ on the front lines of Vladimir Putin‘s ‘sacred struggle’ in Ukraine. 

In gushing praise for Putin’s war, which has seen thousands of Ukrainians killed and entire neighbourhoods destroyed, Kim said he was ‘certain’ Moscow will win a ‘great victory’ against Ukraine.

‘I am deeply convinced that the heroic Russian army and people will certainly win a great victory in the sacred struggle to punish the gathering of evil,’ Kim said as he raised a glass to toast the victory of ‘great Russia’ during a dinner hosted by Putin.

Before tucking into a feast featuring crab dumplings, sturgeon and beef, a fawning Kim added that Russia would triumph against ‘evil’, in what he cast as the West’s imperialism in the war in Ukraine.

In response, Putin stood up and raised his glass whilst saying: ‘A toast to the future strengthening of cooperation and friendship between our countries. 

‘For the wellbeing and prosperity of our nations, for the health of the chairman and all of those present.’

Putin and Kim were offered a menu including duck and fig salad, crab dumplings, sturgeon and beef with a choice of Russian wines, according to Kremlin reporters.

Earlier today, Putin shook hands enthusiastically with Kim as soon as the North Korean leader stepped out of his black limousine and said he was ‘very glad to see him’.

Putin showed off rockets to Kim at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russian’s modern space rocket launch site nestled among the forests of eastern Russia.

Kim, one of the few leaders who has stuck by the despot since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 19 months ago, told Putin he was fighting a ‘sacred war’ with the West and their two countries would together battle with ‘imperialism’.

The two dictators put on an animated display today – one that will only heighten fears that Kim will supply Putin with his much needed artillery shells and antitank missiles for his war in Ukraine.  

The leaders, both of whom are known to be paranoid about assassination attempts, were flanked by a number of bodyguards during the visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

The two men began their meeting with a tour of a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, at which the North Korean leader peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets. 

They then met together with their delegations and later one-on-one before dining together on crab dumplings, sturgeon and beef. 

Putin had congratulated Kim on a series of North Korean anniversaries, including 75 years since the establishment of North Korea in 1948. 

The meeting underscores how the two leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the US and the West. 

Vladimir Putin today put the world’s most powerful Armageddon nuclear rocket dubbed Satan-2 on combat duty.

The ‘unstoppable’ 15,880mph intercontinental missile system, known to Russians as Sarmat, is the size of a 14-storey tower block.

The announcement came from Yury Borisov, head of the Russian Space Agency.

‘The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,’ he told students at an educational event.

He gave no further details.

The 208-ton missile had been due to go on duty at the end of last year but was mysteriously delayed.

Russian propagandists have boasted one strike could sink Britain under the sea.

The move comes as Russia is smarting from setbacks in the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv gains ground and subjects Putin’s territory to increasing drone attacks.

Yet its deployment – if the move is for real – comes after only one proven test launch.

Others were forecast but not announced.

It also comes soon after the Russian Space Agency faced international humiliation over its failed moon mission last month.

Nine months ago Putin threatened: ‘In the near future, Sarmat ICBMs will be put on combat duty for the first time.

‘We know there will be a certain delay in time but this does not change our plans – everything will be done.’

In June he boasted: ‘In the nearest future the first launch pads of Sarmat [Satan-2] with a new heavy missile will be put on combat duty…’

The Armageddon weapon can be loaded with multiple nuclear warheads.

Putin TV propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov – also deputy head of the company running state run Rossiya 1 channel – threatened Britain in revenge for a comment then premier Boris Johnson never made about striking Russia with a nuclear attack.

Downing Street dismissed the claim – widely repeated in Russia’ state media – as ‘another example of disinformation peddled by the Kremlin’, but it continues to be trumpeted in Moscow.

‘The island is so small that one Sarmat missile is enough to drown it once and for all,’ said Kiselyov.

‘Russian missile Sarmat [Satan-2], the world most powerful…is capable of … destroying an area the size of Texas or England.

‘A single launch, Boris, and there is no England anymore.

‘Once and for all.’

The first and only known full-scale test of Satan-2 was announced to great fanfare as soon as it took place on April 20, 2022, with Putin in touch by video-link.

The silo-based Satan-2 launch was from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

The following month, former head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, seen as a close Putin ally, said almost 50 Satan-2 missiles, which were in mass production, would soon be on combat duty.

In early June, a major ICBM test was scheduled and locals near the Kura test range were warned to stay clear of the target site in remote Kamchatka.

But this test never happened.

On 25 June last year Rogozin boasted: ‘We are absolutely on schedule, we are now preparing for the second flight test of the Sarmat.’

The following month Rogozin was fired for unknown reasons with his promised new job yet to arrive.

His successor, ex-deputy premier Borisov, in July 2022 repeated the claim that the missile is in mass production without reiterating Putin’s goal of Satan-2 being on combat duty by December of last year.

Defence analysts suspecting hypersonic hyperbole pointed out that Russia’s R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times before it was put on combat duty.

Some experts will doubt the reality of today’s announcement.

Another missile – RT-2PM Topol – was tested a dozen times before deployment.

‘In this context, the truth of the terms bandied about by Rogozin — that Sarmat is in [serial] production and is soon to be placed on ‘combat duty’ — appear dubious,’ defence expert Leonid Nersisyan has said.

‘It is far likelier that Sarmat will undergo the same testing, prototyping and experimentation programme as its predecessors,’ he wrote in Shephard Media.

‘Actual acceptance of the ICBM into service with the Strategic Missile Forces …is hardly achievable by 2024.’

More than a year ago, Rogozin visited the Krasmash defence factory in Krasnoyarsk, in eastern Siberia, which he labelled the ‘Doomsday Plant’, to inspect the process of producing Satan-2 for flight tests.

The missile was rolled out into a forest for the cameras – and sabre-rattling Rogozin said: ‘The world’s most powerful global-range nuclear-tipped missile is being prepared for new tests.’

Yet there is no evidence these tests happened.

A smiling Vladimir Putin enjoyed a kiss from a female admirer and soaked up the adulation of a crowd at an event in Russia – soon after his former friend and Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin‘s plane exploded.

Prigozhin, once a close ally of Putin before he launched a mutiny against him in June, has been listed as one of the 10 passengers onboard a doomed plane that crashed into a ball of flames, killing all on board, by Russian authorities.

But as reports swirled that the feared Wagner chief had been killed, Putin showed no signs of misery last night at a concert celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Soviet’s Second World War victory at the Battle of Kursk. 

Video shows the dictator, surrounded by bodyguards, walking out to a cheering crowd who scream ‘we are with you, we love you’ before a woman dressed in a pink jacket cries: ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], my favourite.’

Putin, basking in the attention, let the woman walk though his bodyguards to plant an enthusiastic kiss on his face.

‘Kisses and love you. Thank you, be healthy,’ she told Putin, to which the smiling dictator replied, ‘Likewise’. 

Since the pandemic and the start of war, Putin has seldom allowed people to spontaneously come close to him for health and security reasons.

The footage shows him unusually relaxed after a speech on the key battle at an event in Kursk, Russia – despite knowing his erstwhile friend was likely dead in the horror air crash some three hours earlier.

And during a speech during a summit of the BRICS group of nations this morning, Putin again made no mention of Prigozhin and the crash. 

For years Prigozhin was a faithful ally for Putin – running Kremlin banquets, providing catering for the Russian government, running propaganda troll farms, and setting up a ruthless private army, Wagner. 

Yet his attempt at a short-lived mutiny against Moscow in June was seen as betrayal by the dictator.

While Prigozhin has been named as being onboard the doomed plane that crashed, there has still been no confirmation that the warlord, who has been a thorn in Putin’s side since the Ukraine war began, has died. 

The Investigative Committee of Russia, which is looking into the crash, this morning confirmed 10 people were killed in the crash with no mention of Prigozhin. 

But while there has been no official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, the warlord’s supporters have claimed he is dead and hailed him a hero and patriot who they said had died at the hands of unidentified people it called ‘traitors to Russia’. 

On Thursday morning, at the scene of the crash site, Russian officials stretchered black body bags from a forested area. Parts of the plane’s tail and other fragments lay on the ground near where forensic investigators had erected a tent.

Whoever or whatever was behind the crash, Prigozhin’s death would rid Putin of someone who had mounted the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999. 

Others who have opposed Putin or his interests have also died under unclear circumstances or come close to death, including outspoken political leaders and journalists. The Kremlin has always denied any state involvement in such incidents. 

Prigozhin’s death would also leave the Wagner Group, which incurred Putin’s wrath in June by staging an abortive armed mutiny against the army’s top brass, leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere. 

The Brazilian Embraer Legacy 600 model of executive jet that crashed has only recorded one accident in over 20 years of service, according to website International Aviation HQ, and it was not due to mechanical failure.

Embraer said it has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia and had not provided maintenance for the aircraft since 2019.

The plane showed no sign of a problem until a precipitous drop in its final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.

Video footage purportedly shows the aircraft falling out of the sky in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region, 60 miles north of Moscow, on Wednesday. A burning wreckage, which appears to be of a plane, was later seen in a field, with unconfirmed images showing it completely ablaze. 

Prigozhin, 62, has been increasingly careful since he led a coup against Putin’s regime exactly two months ago.

After its failure, he had been warned that his life was in danger. He was known to take huge care over his security and is rumoured to have not been onboard the fateful plane, despite state TV asserting otherwise.

Sources close to him said that while the aircraft belonged to him, he usually flew on another aircraft.

Another plane, also supposedly with links to Prigozhin, was detected ‘zig-zagging’ over Moscow in the aftermath of the crash, fuelling speculation that the Wagner boss may not have been onboard after all.

Tracking data available for the crashed plane appears to show it rise to around 29,000ft, before suddenly disappearing and dropping to 0ft. 

Stunning videos of a Ukrainian artillery, drone and mine attack on a column of Russian tanks have emerged from the front lines near Bakhmut, with one retired US general praising Kyiv‘s troops for orchestrating what he called a ‘textbook’ strike. 

The attack in the countryside close to the town of Klishchiivka in Donetsk began when the Russian armour trundled past the cover of a tree line and into an open field.

Suddenly, explosions rang out when one tank appeared to run over a mine – a signal that triggered a hail of artillery fire and drone strikes on the unsuspecting column. 

Incredible drone footage shared by Ukraine war monitors and open-source intelligence accounts showed the utter chaos and confusion of the Russian tank operators as shells rained down on the field, scoring direct hits on several vehicles. 

One tank veered off to the right and broke from the column, perhaps looking to escape, when its main gun appeared to blast one of the other stricken Russian tanks mere feet away – a testament to the panic and likely inexperience of the unit. 

Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of United States Army Europe, said the Russian column presented a perfect target and made ‘opening-day mistakes’. 

‘Impressive by UAF. Textbook integration of fires, drones, and apparently mines. Russian tanks in column in combat with minimal separation… no evidence of experienced Sergeants in this Russian unit,’ he said. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials released a video today showing how their forces had destroyed an advanced Russian S-400 Triumf air-defence system loaded with missiles.

The video shows a giant explosion in Olenevka, a town on Cape Tarkhankut in Crimea, following the strike, which was confirmed by HUR, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency.

‘As a result of the explosion, the installation itself, the missiles and personnel installed on it were completely destroyed,’ said Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko.

Russian sources suspect the blast was caused by a Storm Shadow missile supplied by Britain and France to Ukraine.

Russian Telegram channel Military Informant said: ‘The enemy publishes footage of a strike on an S-400 air defence system in the Olenevka area in Crimea this morning.

‘What was hit is currently unknown, however, presumably, it was a Storm Shadow cruise missile.

‘In addition, a Ukrainian reconnaissance UAV hung unhindered directly above the positions of the air-defence system, exercising objective control.

‘Such incidents raise legitimate questions about the quality of air-defence coverage in one of the most ”missile-hazardous” regions of Russia.’

Some reports indicated other Russian missile systems were also taken out, including Bastion and Pantsir-S1 systems.

‘The Bastion complex is one of the carriers of the Onyx missiles used by the Russians to hit Ukraine,’ adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryushchenko said.

‘The Russian S-400 Triumf complex was destroyed in Crimea.’

It comes as Russia and Ukraine traded drone attacks early on Wednesday, officials said, with Kyiv apparently targeting Moscow again and the Kremlin’s forces launching another bombardment of Ukrainian grain storage depots in what have recently become signature tactics in the 18-month war.

A three-hour night-time Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight on Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, Odesa Regional Military Administration head Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian air-defence systems downed nine Shahed drones, Kiper said, but added: ‘Unfortunately, there are hits on production and trans-shipment complexes.’

Russia zeroed in on Odesa last month, crippling significant parts of the port city’s grain facilities days after President Vladimir Putin broke off Russia’s participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative – a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hunger.

Russian officials, meanwhile, claimed to have downed Ukrainian drones in Moscow and the surrounding region early Wednesday, the defence ministry and the mayor said. 

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said one drone smashed into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby and emergency services responded to the scene.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the drone had been electronically jammed. It blamed the attack on Ukraine and said two other drones were shot down by air defence systems in the Mozhaisk and Khimki areas of the Moscow region. 

Kyiv officials, as usual, neither confirmed nor denied whether Ukraine was behind the drone attacks.

Moscow’s airports briefly closed but have now reopened, according to Russian state media.

After months of resisting Russian advances on Ukrainian soil, earlier this year Kyiv’s troops began striking back on targets across the border, targeting Moscow’s military assets behind the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine and launching drones against Moscow.

Kyiv is also trying to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin along multiple fronts, pursuing a counteroffensive at various points along the 900-mile front line, as well as diplomatically by obtaining pledges of more weaponry from its Western allies, including F-16 warplanes.

Meanwhile, three people were killed in the Belgorod region of Russia on the Ukrainian border after repeated shelling of a sanatorium, according to Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Gladkov said the sanatorium in the village of Lavy, about 25 miles from the border, was shelled and that ‘the enemy dropped two grenades from a drone while people were on the street’.

The Belgorod region has witnessed sporadic fighting and shelling during the war, including a border incursion last May that prompted the Kremlin to introduce tighter security.

An ex-convict fighter in Putin‘s war went on the rampage with an accomplice killing six after being freed from jail, say law enforcement in Russia.

The bodies of five men and one woman with stab and serious burn wounds were found in two separate houses blitzed by fire in a village in northern Russian region, Karelia.

Igor Sofonov, 38, a hardened criminal, had been recruited to serve in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

His alleged accomplice – who had also served jail time for serious crimes – was named as Maxim Bochkarev, 37.

Both men have been detained initially for two months on suspicion of murder, the Russian Investigative Committee said. A video shows them being taken by armed police into court where they were remanded in custody.

Bochkarev and Sofonov are reported to have previous convictions for murder, rape, robbery, and drugs.

Russians have expressed deep alarm about former convict fighters in the war being pardoned by Putin as a reward for fighting then allowed home after serving at the frontline.

Investigators suspect the two houses were set on fire in a bid to hide the massacre, with footage showing the gutted homes following the blaze.

The dead in one house in the village of Derevyannoye included Konstantin Lonin, 42, his brother Dmitry, 47, and Vladimir Sergeenko, 76.

In the same house was a woman named only as Svetlana, 38.

In the other house, on Friendship Lane, the bodies of Vladimir Tereshchenko, 70, and his son Artyom, 39, were found.

Artyom’s children had jumped from windows when the intruders broke in, and went to raise the alarm with their grandfather in a neighbouring house.

The children are now safe but their grandfather was killed along with his son when he later came to the scene. 

‘According to the preliminary version, the cause of the incident was a long-standing conflict on domestic grounds,’ reported Karelia News.

It is unclear if Sofonov was serving for the mercenary army Wagner Group – as some reports suggest – or Putin’s regular army.

He was freed from the war and allowed home in spring, said reports.

Both suspects were in a state of ‘extreme intoxication’ when they were detained, according to reports, and the accomplice was described as a ‘strong, tall, wiry man’.

From false teeth and a quicker walk to rumours of plastic surgery – could Vladimir Putin really be using a body double to avoid assassins… and Covid-19?

Observers have pointed to the Kremlin strongman’s changing appearance over the years as possible evidence that he uses someone else to stand in for him on engagements he either does not want to make or considers too dangerous.

The speculation ran rife again overnight when Putin made a surprise visit to the city of Derbent in southern Russia’s Dagestan region, with footage showing how the despot dived into a nighttime crowd like a Hollywood actor on a red carpet.

This is despite the Russian leader showing signs of paranoia around catching Covid-19, and amid reports that he fears being assassinated to the point that he only has direct contact with those inside his shrinking inner circle. 

The rumour was also fuelled by a recent picture of Putin with Chechen republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, showing the president with bloated and mottled skin.

And in March, a video claiming the 70-year-old is using body doubles went viral.

Here, MailOnline takes a look back at appearances that have raised  suspicions the despot uses doppelgängers…

The most recent speculation came this week after Putin survived the biggest challenge to his 23-year reign as Russia’s president.

Under orders from mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, fighters from his Wagner private military company seized Roztov-on-don and marched on Moscow.

A crisis was only narrowly averted with Prigozhin striking an amnesty deal with the Kremlin. The deal stipulates that the Wagner troops will not face charges, and in exchange they must disband or join the Russian army.

Prigozhin himself will be allowed to live in exile across the border in Belarus.

While Putin has worked to assert the dominance of the Russian state in the days since the mutiny, analysts have said the president’s position in the Kremlin has never looked weaker, with Kyiv saying the countdown has begun to the end of his rule.

The despot has used his typical televised speeches to assure Russians that he is the one in control, but last night he made an uncharacteristic visit to a meet-and-greet that saw him greeted by a crowd as he posed for selfies with young girls. 

Seemingly imbued with fresh energy after averting a small scale civil war last week, the normally stoic and isolated Putin was uncharacteristically personable, shaking hands and planting kisses on the head of a young teenage girl who gushed over him and pleaded with her mother to snap a photo of her with the president.

In another bizarre moment he shakes hands with – and appears to adjust something on the uniform of – an officer carrying what may be his nuclear briefcase. He has not greeted his security apparatchiks in such a way previously.

The scene was markedly different to the extreme, seemingly paranoid measures taken by Putin in the last few years to avoid close contact with the public, other world leaders and even members of his own government.

The strongman has enforced strict quarantines for anyone outside of his own close circle before meetings, likely out of fear of catching Covid-19.

But his transformative behaviour overnight has led many, including senior Russian figures, to speculate that the Putin seen in shaky camera footage greeting adoring fans in Dagestan was in fact a body double.

A longtime Moscow diplomat said on Thursday: ‘It is getting impossible to believe that there is only one Putin.

‘There are several – very good lookalikes, yet they behave somewhat differently. This one diving into the crowd in Dagestan behaves differently to the traditional Putin.’

Commentator Viktor Alksnis, a Soviet military tactician and politician who is now a Western-based analyst known as the Black Colonel, said: ‘Why is Putin meeting with visitors in the Kremlin after their two-week quarantine and at a great distance, while in Derbent is calmly into the crowd and even hugs and kisses some citizens?

‘How can the physical security of the president be ensured under such conditions? Something is not right here.

‘It looks like a theatrical production in which Putin is not really Putin.’

And pro-war Russian nationalist and former FSB colonel Igor ‘Strelkov’ Girkin declared for certain that it was a Putin double in Dagestan.

‘A person vaguely resembling the president – and not at all requiring compliance with the two-week quarantine necessary to get an appointment with [Putin] – was walking around Derbent,’ he said.

His appearance in Derbent came a day after a picture of Putin with Chechen republic head Ramzan Kadyrov showed the president appearing bloated with mottled skin – also prompting people to question if it was actually Putin visiting the region.

Some likened his appearance to that of a waxwork model. 

The speculation in recent days is by no means the first time it has been suggested Putin has been deploying a body double to public events amid claims he is suffering from poor health, is afraid of assassination, or is terrified of catching Covid.

Infact, the chatter around the theory grew so loud that the Kremlin was forced to deny the rumours in April, with Putin’s official spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: ‘You have probably heard that he has very many doubles who work instead of him while he sits in a bunker… [This is] yet another lie.’

‘You see yourselves what our president is like: He always was, and is now, mega-active — those who work next to him can hardly keep up with him. His energy can only be envied,’ Peskov added.

Many Russia experts have sided with Peskov on this issue, saying that it is perhaps wishful thinking from the West that Putin is showing signs of illness, and is therefore in need of a body double.

However, others have said that nothing coming out of the Kremlin can be trusted, and that Moscow has told so many lies it is impossible to know when officials there are telling the truth.

Peskov’s rebuke of the rumours followed a viral video in March that seized on speculation that Putin’s only trip so far to newly-invaded territory in Mariupol on March 19 was performed by a doppelgänger.

The video asked: ‘Who is ruling Russia?’

It is unclear who made the footage but it appears to be aimed at reaching Russians who rely on uber-loyalist state media for their news. 

The producers of the video said that a specialist has noticed differences in the Russian president’s appearance, like the ledge on his earlobe, a mole or his wrinkles which ‘constantly change’. 

Putin is widely believed to have had regular plastic surgery as he has aged since first becoming acting president on the last day of 1999.

Rumours are rife that Putin ‘understudies’ – who have undergone plastic surgery to resemble him – are deployed increasingly as his health worsens amid rumours of cancer and early stage Parkinson’s.

For Putin’s Mariupol visit, the video claims ‘they forgot to put in his jaw’ as it looks different to Putin’s and also questions if the ‘double’ has false teeth.

On Monday, March 20, Kyiv official Anton Gerashchenko posted three images of Putin’s chin and questioned whether they belonged to the same man.

The Interior Minister advisor wrote: ‘What’s up with your chin, Putin?

‘Looks like lately his make-up artists (i.e. for the recent trips of the bunker man to the occupied Crimea and Mariupol) had to work with quite a low-quality copy, not even a double but its copy. I wonder which one of them was real?’

One picture showed Putin, 70, one month ago in an address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow.

Another was Putin’s reported visit to naval port Sevastopol in Crimea on March 18.

And the third was from footage released the following day evidently showing the dictator in war-blitzed Mariupol.

The first image showed his chin tight and precise.

But the image in Sevastopol – grabbed from Ukraine in 2014 – incited a sagging chin, while the Mariupol chin appears firmer but less so than in the Moscow picture.

The Telegram channel General SVR insisted Putin had not been to Sevastopol or Mariupol, a city invaded after a bloody battle last year.

‘The information from the Kremlin’s resources that Vladimir Putin visited Crimea and Mariupol is NOT true,’ claimed the channel which says it has insider sources.

In Crimea, a double of the president was noted with a short visit and solely for the sake of a video photo shoot.’

There have been repeated claims that Putin uses body doubles on some trips outside Moscow, or when there are many people around.

In January, General SVR also claimed that Putin’s visit to UFA involved a ‘body double’ and not the real president. It predicted: ‘Soon, the understudy will appear more and more often as president,’ said the channel. ‘The President’s health tends to worsen.’

In Ufa, the ‘president’ was seen paying his respects at the open coffin of iron-fisted Murtaza Rakhimov, ex-leader of oil-rich Russian republic Bashkortostan, who died aged 88. He also met the region’s head, Radiy Habirov. 

Previously, in October, 2022, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of military intelligence, questioned whether the real Putin still existed. 

Budanov said the military intelligence service had detected Putin doubles in the past standing in for him on ‘special occasions’ – but added that now, it is ‘usual practice’ for the Russian president. 

Budanov said: ‘We know specifically about three people that keep appearing, but how many there are, we don’t know. They all had plastic surgery to look alike.

‘The one thing that gives them away is their height. It’s visible in videos and pictures. Also gesturing, body language and earlobes, since they are unique for every person.’ 

A month prior, footage of Putin apparently showed him falling asleep during a meeting, coupled with claims he has complained about fatigue and shortness of breath to doctors, which raised fresh doubts over his health.

A body double was even on standby in case Putin was unable to attend the meeting, claimed Telegram channel General SVR, which has long claimed Putin is suffering serious health issues.

In August, Budanov had previously claimed that Putin was using body doubles, pointing to the president’s changing ears over the years as proof of his theory.

The 69-year-old Russian president’s health has been the topic of fierce discussion among commentators.

His close ally Nikolai Patrushev is said to have stood in for the president during his medical appointments.

He said in a TV appearance: ‘The picture, let’s say, of the ears, is different… And it’s like a fingerprint, each person’s ear picture is unique. It cannot be repeated.’

Budanov further alleged that Putin body doubles ‘have different habits, different mannerisms, different gaits, sometimes even different heights if you looked closely’.

The Major General had previously claimed a Vladimir Putin body ‘double’ may have been used for his arrival at a summit in Iran to meet Turkey’s president Erdogan in July 2022.

While the Russian leader looked awkward as he came down the steps of his presidential plane in Tehran, Ukrainian sources noted that he moved unusually quickly and was more alert than in prior public appearances.

The Russian premier looked animated when greeting the waiting party, before removing his jacket and clambering into a heavily armoured limousine.

Budanov said he was suspicious of Putin’s appearance in a live interview on Ukraine’s 1+1 news channel.

Ukrainian reports said Budanov suggested that a Putin lookalike could have flown to Tehran to meet with the presidents of Iran and Turkey.

‘I will only hint,’ he said. ‘Please look at the moment of Putin’s exit from the plane. Is it Putin at all?’

Putin addressed the idea of using body doubles himself in February 2020, when he admitted that officials had considered using doubles, but he claimed the idea was rejected.

‘I discarded the idea of any doubles,’ he said.

He was advised in the early 2000s when Russia was hit by terrorist attacks that a lookalike should take his place at events where the head of state might be at risk, he said.

‘This was during the toughest time of our war against terrorism,’ he said.

As Prime Minister and then as President, Putin oversaw the war against Islamist separatists from Chechnya between 1999 and 2000. 

After Russia claimed victory, terror attacks increased in the Caucasus while bombers also targeted the country’s main cities.

‘The double would go where things were dodgy?’ asked Vandenko.

‘Well yes, go, put in appearances,’ Putin confirmed.

Body doubles were reportedly used by former Kremlin leaders, for example longtime Soviet supremos Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev.

In 2009, people in Sochi did not believe that a walkabout by then President Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Putin involved the real leaders. Medvedev said at the time: ‘We are not doubles, we are real.’

Russia has sent a government plane to Washington DC to bring a group of diplomats back to Moscow, days after the Wagner group mutiny was quashed.

The State Department confirmed the landing of the plane, and said it was a routine procedure – reminding Russia that they expect them to honor the same protocols for returning U.S. diplomats.

But the move comes amid deep unease at this weekend’s insurgency led by Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and will provide officials in Moscow with a chance to hear from the returning diplomats how events were seen in the United States.

The plane, an Ilyushin Il-96-300, took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport at 10:05am on Tuesday.

It flew a circuitous route, heading directly north to skirt E.U. airspace before crossing the Atlantic.

It landed at Dulles airport in Washington DC at 2:08pm, after an 11 hour journey.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed the flight to i News.

‘The US government has allowed the Russian government to send a charter flight to the United States to transport to Russia those Russian diplomats whose assignments have ended.

‘We also maintain strict reciprocity with Russia regarding special transport missions.’

Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, later told reporters: ‘In exchange for granting these courtesies, we expect Russia to maintain open transport for our diplomats and cargo to our embassy in Moscow.’

The plane has a capacity, when configured for the maximum number of seats, for 262 people.

It is not known how many boarded, and how many disembarked.

A former U.S. intelligence agent told i News that the plane could also contain intelligence agents, who may want to meet with their U.S. counterparts. 

The intelligence official, who spent decades identifying Russian agents for the US government, told the site that ‘if deemed appropriate’ the Russian diplomats would schedule ‘high-level diplomatic meetings’ with the U.S. State Department. 

‘We will just have to wait and see,’ the former U.S. asset said.

The plane has in the past week flown to Asia, landing in Delhi at the same time as India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was being feted at the White House by Joe Biden.

India remains a crucial trading partner for Russia, but Modi’s visit was hoped to reduce India’s dependence on Moscow for arms, economic ties and technology.

It was also intended to convince the Indian government to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India has so far avoided voting against Russia or criticizing Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. 

The plane was also, in the last week, in Vietnam, ahead of a planned visit by the head of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma.

Volodin Vyacheslav Victorovich was expected to be in Vietnam at the weekend, but called off his trip amid the Wagner uprising.

Vietnam relies on Russia for much of its military equipment, and Russia has significant energy investments in Vietnam.

But the U.S. is trying to encourage international condemnation of the Ukraine invasion. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, was in Vietnam in April.

The dust on Prigozhin’s shocking move to march through Russia towards Moscow is yet to settle.

The militia leader is reportedly now in exile in Belarus, and analysts are noting that it is remarkable he has managed to survive.

Putin is widely seen to be severely weakened by the aborted uprising, but it is unclear how this will affect the Ukraine conflict.