Top Putin doctor who knows 'Vlad's secrets' arrested by security services while trying to flee Russia through Belarus
9 September 2023, 23:15 | Updated: 9 September 2023, 23:27
A top doctor in Russia 'who knows Vladimir Putin's medical history' has been arrested by the FSB while trying to escape through Belarus.
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The depot's doctor Viktor Trukhin, 59, is said to have an intimate knowledge of the madman's medical history and was arrested by the security services.
The vaccine chief went missing six days ago - when he was dismissed from his Russian state job following allegations of fraud.
He was a leading researcher in Russia's latest vaccine development.
Trukhin was stopped by Putin's forces trying to escape abroad through close neighbour and wartime allie Belarus.
He was formerly the director of the St Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums.
"He tried to leave the Russian Federation for Belarus and was detained by officers of the Russian FSB, who apparently knew that the director… planned to travel abroad," Telegram channel Cheka-OGPU reported.
The latest defection comes after a top Russian rocket scientist was mysteriously poisoned in the secretive state.
Professor Vitaly Melnikov, 77, had headed the Department of Rocket and Space Systems at RSC Energia before becoming suddenly seriously ill days before he died.
A Moscow newspaper claimed that inedible mushrooms were the reason for his sudden downturn in health.
Russian doctors were unable to save Melkinov from the "severe poisoning" that he suffered - as he battled against his fate for more than two weeks after he fell ill.
