“Hard to tell if they’re taking people out or bringing in special troops in to quell a possible coup d’etat.”
The smaller cities are much more loyal to Putin than Moscow/St Petersburg. If there is any uprising it will be by the urban elites in those two cities.
Most likely they are flying in loyalists from the sticks who won’t object to breaking the skulls of some Muscovites if that is needed.
Assuming people are being brought in for security reasons I don’t think it’s the general population he’s worried about: it’s his own security forces. He should be afraid of another Zhukov removing his security forces and then him getting the Beria treatment. Or not. It just seems strange, but who knows.