Putin fears a coup: dismissed eight senior law enforcement officials and created a loyalist Praetorian guard

Obama has done the same thing.

Obama's afraid of getting thrown in a hole too?

I don't blame him.

Considering.

Putin afraid

He's not afraid of a coup. He's planning one. There are still holdovers from the Yeltsin crime spree, oligarchs who want to appease the Empire etc.

Putin is preparing his move against them, while the public is massively behind him.

Putin sets up armed force to ‘stop coup’

President Putin has named his judo sparring partner and former bodyguard as commander of a new paramilitary security force called the National Guard — a move that critics say is aimed at ensuring his personal safety in the event of an attempted coup.
Viktor Zolotov, 62, who led the presidential security service from 2000 to 2013, commands the interior ministry troops but will report directly to Mr Putin in his new role. He spent 20 years during the Soviet era as a member of the KGB division that protected Communist party leaders.
[link to www.thetimes.co.uk]

Poverty in Russia rising at fastest pace since 1990s turmoil

Last month, the Russian statistics service said the number of people officially living in poverty spiked nearly 20 percent in 2015 to 19.2 million — some 13 percent of the population.

"The projected increase in 2016 would return poverty rates to their 2007 levels, undoing nearly a decade's worth of gains. It would represent the largest increase in the poverty rate since the 1998-1999 crisis, far exceeding the increase observed during the global financial crisis in 2008," the report states, adding that the government has little money to spare to fight poverty.
[link to finance.yahoo.com]

business insider owned now by a German propaganda rag.

Let me guess by Jeremy Bender or whatever that propagandist shills name is.

Putin is not nearly bad as the people trying to take him out, and Russians know it. No amount of Zionist propaganda will change that.

Thank god his old ass will be dead soon.

Look son, you got wrong one or two "details".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s met Russian President Vladimir Putin Moscow on April 21. The last time the two leaders met was Nov. 30.
[link to www.al-monitor.com]

In defiance of all expectations when the USSR collapsed, large numbers of youthful and often well-educated new activists are moving into Russia's old Communist Party, and starting to rejuvenate its complexion and its prospects.
In the past two election cycles, the party increased its vote from about 12 to 20 percent, and could be set to make major gains this time around. The CP has pulled off some surprise upsets in recent regional polls.

"Russians tend to be left-wing, by their history and collective mentality," says Popov. "People are getting poorer and poorer, while all the profits go to a few friends of our president. And every year [Vladimir] Putin holds a televised town hall meeting where he pretends to solve all problems. It's just theater. He's actually ... slashing social benefits and impoverishing people. Sooner or later, something's going to break. I'm personally ready for revolution, just like in 1917."
[link to www.csmonitor.com]

Putin does that every year, actually. As far as I remember he dismissed a bunch of generals etc. exactly a year ago.
IMO, it's nothing political, just planned dissmissals.

As for Russian National Guard, it's the law first proposed in late 90s actually. Although the timing now is quite right.