“In Putin’s Russia, these kinds of accidents do not happen by chance. Putin is being told that his time is running out.”
I agree. The people posting this surely knew they were risking their lives in doing so yet they were unafraid of the risk.
That alone is a very serious threat in a dictatorship like Ruzzia.
There were analysts who, months ago, described Putin's bungling of the Ukraine invasion as causing great distress among the siloviki. Heavy troop casualties, purges of military and security service leaders, the decline of Russia's military reputation, and the reinvigoration of NATO are heavy marks against Putin.
For Putin, one of his nightmares must be to be ousted and killed like Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. He was reelected as dictator in 1989 as discontent simmered. In December of 1989 though, Ceaușescu went from dictator to dead in a matter of days. The key moment was when a routine public appearance went wrong as a crowd erupted in insults and abuse.
Ceaușescu ordered his troops to fire, which touched off riots, his flight for safety, capture by the army, and trial and death by military execution. The entire episode took less than a week and was touched off when the Romanian security services stirred up the initial outburst of public derision.
Perhaps this fiasco of a press conference is a warning to Putin to change course, but I think it is more likely to be notice from the siloviki that, like Ceaușescu, even if reelected, Putin will not be permitted to remain in power and will be ousted violently if necessary. If I am correct, then events will move quickly as Putin stands down from reelection and Russia contrives a successor.