Vladimir Putin Forced To Flee To 'Secret Palace' As Protests Mount After Draft Announcement: Report

After the announcement of Russia’s partial military mobilization against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has reportedly taken to hiding out in his "secret palace" away from the public on Wednesday, as protests against the mobilization continue across Russia.

The "secret palatial complex," located in Lake Valdai between Moscow and St. Petersburg, is reportedly where Putin has been hiding out since Wednesday after making the partial military mobilization announcement, according to Business Insider.

Farida Rusamova, an independent journalist, made the announcement on their Telegram that Putin has been staying in the complex, which is partially owned by billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk and that the Russian leader has been resting in the complex which includes a three-storey spa building for relaxation.

Rusamova claims that Putin intends to stay in the complex until at least Thursday next week, and that the government made pre-recorded video meetings to release over the next few days to cloak his absence to the public.

Since Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilization in order to continue the Russia-Ukraine war, hundreds have been detained in anti-military protests across Russia, with state programming attempting to bridge the gap between the public’s antipathy over the war and the Russian army’s need for soldiers to fight, the Daily Beast reported.

Retired military agent Colonel Rustem Klupov claimed on Russian television, for instance, that the 300,000 mobilized reservists come from the number of forces that NATO has in Eastern Europe, also saying that “30 percent of the Ukrainian Army's personnel” is made up of NATO forces.

“One of the reasons for this mobilization is that, subsequent to the Madrid Summit this summer, an announcement was made about the enlargement of NATO forces by 300,000 in the eastern part of Europe,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the front lines of the war itself, many soldiers are reporting back that they would only receive one day of military training before being stationed in Ukraine, with many inexperienced new recruits being put on the front lines of the country.

“There were 1,000 of them, and no medical examination,” Tatyana Dotsenko, the wife of a man who claims that was assigned to the front lines immediately after one day of training, said.