Where, Exactly, Is Putin?

[MineralMan]

I don't know. He could be just about anywhere in Russia.

I also don't know whether our intelligence agencies can tell us exactly where he is at any given time. It could be that they know, but there is no way to find out if they do or not. If they do know, they wouldn't admit knowing.

Or, they might know where he will be at some time now or in the future. I'm sure they want to know where he is and where he will be. They're pretty resourceful that way.

You and I will never know where Putin is for sure, though. And Putin will never know whether we know or not.

Scary stuff.

[Ocelot II]

1. Hiding in a spare room at Mierda-Loco?

[orwell]

2. Frankly, I would be surprised...

...if US intelligence doesn't have information from fairly deep within the Russian hierarchy. I assume they have assets within our inner circles as well.

Does that mean that we know exactly where he is at any moment? I guess, since I am working on conjecture anyway, it depends on how many people in the Russian hierarchy know where he is at any given moment.

[MineralMan]

4. Yeah, well, when Putin moves from one place to another,

he doesn't just climb into his Mercedes and drive himself there. Nope. When it's important, intelligence with fine granularity can learn a lot of things.

[Walleye]

3. I was reading that FSB officers were being disciplined for leaking

And according to the story that information was leaked from the FSB

[MineralMan]

5. Hmm...

Intelligence work is very interesting, but mostly we don't know much about how it's done.

[Walleye]

7. True. Opaque but fascinating. I guess that's why they call it tradecraft

[MineralMan]

10. Well, the more important you are, the more people it takes

to take care of your needs and take you where you want to go. And all of those people have wives and girlfriends and friends. It can get to be very complicated to keep things a secret, I think.

People are always the weakest link in any security scheme.

[empedocles]

6. They could keep track of putin's mistresses/spawn/whatever

[MineralMan]

8. Sure, I suppose so.

Or other things, for that matter.

[Walleye]

9. I'm getting the feeling about Putin that his personal relationships have become very limited

[MineralMan]

11. I'm betting he doesn't trust very many people these days.

[pandr32]

12. For sure!

He probably has serious leverage over whoever tends to him in any capacity--like their families.

[MineralMan]

16. Yes. I'm sure he believes he does, anyhow.

Donald Trump, too, believed he was surrounded by people who would always be loyal to him, too.

A lot of dead mob bosses thought that, as well. Past tense, of course.

[Quakerfriend]

13. I've read that his mistress and mother of 4

of his children is in a ‘very secure’ compound in Switzerland. She is the famous Russian gymnast.

[MineralMan]

14. That wouldn't surprise me.

He's not a very public person, really. Probably even less so right now.

[Marius25]

15. I've heard it claimed he's hiding in a nuclear bunker in the Ural mountains.

[MineralMan]

17. Yeah, I've heard that, too.

Could be.

[relayerbob]

20. Unlikely, since he's met with the head of Israel and Belarus and others

in the last week. He won't risk that much travel back and forth.

[gulliver]

18. I wouldn't want to be his food taster

[MineralMan]

19. Food tasters aren't of much use any more, really.

Or so I think.

[Tarc]

21. Standing next to a window, with any luck.