Experts have weighed in on just how much time Russian President Vladimir Putin has, and when his clock stops ticking it's "not going to be pretty".
Former CIA Moscow chief of station Daniel Hoffman told the Daily Beast that Putin's advisers will turn on him the moment they become unhappy with either their personal positions or the progress of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Nobody's gonna ask, 'Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?' No. It's a f***ing hammer to the head and he's dead. Or it's time to go to the sanatorium," he said.
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"They schwack him for it. That's what they'll do."
Hoffman added Putin's rivals would give little warning before executing their potentially bloody move.
"These guys that are going to do it are going to be so secret about it so that Putin doesn't find them and kill them first," he said.
"It'll happen all of a sudden. And he'll be dead."
And when asked who would be Putin's rivals, Hoffman was quick to provide names including the head of the Russian federal police's Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov and the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
And if Putin is culled off, former CIA clandestine service officer Ronald Marks said the "post-Putin" Russia could see mayhem ensue.
"There'd be a mad-dash scramble for a few weeks over who gets power."
