Vladimir Putin’s administration staff ‘start the day with a bottle of vodka’ and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ‘is often drunk when writing his doomsday threats of nuclear war’.
That’s according to the exiled Russian newspaper Verstka, which has spoken to several sources close to the administration.
The newspaper reports that consumption among Putin’s closest associates has risen sharply since the invasion of Ukraine.
“Not everyone in the presidential administration started the day with a glass of vodka earlier,” a source told the newspaper. “Now I know many more who do it, and in some the glass has become a bottle.”
The sources also claim that Dmitry Medvedev, currently the deputy head of the country’s security council, is drinking excessively.
Sources say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to hardly drink alcohol.
Two sources claim that Medvedev is often drunk when he writes his scathing messages on the Telegram messaging service about “the atrocities of the West”.
Stress appears to be a major factor in the rise in alcohol intake among Kremlin members, the newspaper claims, first reported in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
Before the war, few Kremlin employees started the day with a glass of vodka, but now many more do, and some even start the day with a bottle of vodka, according to Verstka, who spoke to sources familiar with the drinking habits. from the Russian presidential administration, the Russian government and regional elites.
“Previously, at official state banquets, a maximum of one bottle of wine or vodka per person was served,” sources have explained to the newspaper.
“Since the invasion of Ukraine began, the norm has increased, and banquets now serve 1.5-two bottles of wine or vodka per person.”
Among Kremlin employees, alcohol intake in the mornings is also said to have increased.
Medvedev is ‘often drunk when he writes his scathing posts on the Telegram messaging service’
Verstka reports that several regional governors have greatly increased their alcohol consumption since the start of the war.
Despite Western sanctions against many Russian politicians, expensive alcoholic beverages are still served at banquets.
These include Louis XIII cognac, which costs more than £2,000 for a 70cl bottle, and Château Margaux wine, which can cost more than £600 a bottle, according to Danil Novikov of FBK, the non-profit anti-corruption foundation established in 2011 by Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin hardly drinks alcohol and is said to have a “very negative attitude”, a source close to the Kremlin told Verstka.
The complaints arose as Medvedev continued with another unhinged tirade about the West.
The former Russian president said today there were no longer ‘moral limits’ to prevent Moscow from destroying its enemies’ submarine cables in a threat to the UK and its allies.
This is because of what he said was Western complicity in the Nord Stream pipeline explosions last year, which have yet to be officially explained.
Medvedev made the threatening comments on his official channel on the Telegram messaging app early Wednesday amid fears Russia could cut the cables connecting Britain to the internet causing widespread blackouts.
The explosions ruptured the newly built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which carried gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, last September. Germany had already canceled the project due to the war in Ukraine.
US media reports have suggested that Washington was aware of a Ukrainian plot to blow up the pipelines. Kyiv has denied that it destroyed them.
Firebrand Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 while Vladimir Putin temporarily took over as prime minister, has grown increasingly aggressive in recent years, and particularly since Putin invaded Ukraine.
One of Putin’s close allies, he previously threatened the UK, saying in late May that British officials are now legitimate targets for Russia.
This came after UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that targets inside Russia’s borders were legitimate targets for Ukraine to attack.
In January, he said a Russian defeat in Ukraine “could spark nuclear war” in a threat to Britain over its arms supply to kyiv and its forces.
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