MYSTERY has engulfed Vladimir Putin’s defence chief following his death from a “massive” heart attack that was “not caused by natural reasons.”

Sergei Shoigu is said to have been “ruled out of the game” after a health scare last month during a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

In a shocking Facebook post, Leonid Nevzlin, 62, a famous Russian businessman and avowed adversary of Vladimir Putin, made the charges.

He said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who has played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is also “in urgent care.”

“Shoigu is out of the game; if he lives, he may become crippled,” he wrote.

“He suffered a huge heart attack all of a sudden.” He is in critical care and is hooked up to machines.

“According to rumour, the heart attack could not have occurred due to natural causes.”

The remarkable assertions were made by unnamed sources in Moscow, according to the exiled former co-owner of oil company Yukos.

He didn’t specify when he believes Shoigu suffered a heart attack.

Shoigu was reportedly seen walking slowly at the burial of far-right ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky on April 8.

Shoigu was also seen on April 13 in a video conference with Putin and other ministers discussing Arctic development.

He was dressed in a suit and took notes, clearly noting Putin’s directions, although he was not heard speaking.

However, doubts have already been raised regarding whether phoney material is utilised in these meetings when Putin is shown meeting remotely with ministers.

The reports of a possible heart attack are not the first, and they follow previous rumours concerning the 66-year-cardiovascular old’s issues.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry employee, Shoigu experienced the medical crisis following a dispute with Putin.

Other rumours claim Shoigu went missing because Putin instructed him to operate from a distant nuclear bunker in the Urals.

There have also been several accusations that he has been benched.

POISON FETISH

Nevzlin’s accusation that Shoigu’s heart attack was not natural might imply that Putin is carrying out poisonings of his inner circle, a claimed obsession of the Russian autocrat and preferred technique of killing his adversaries.

It comes after Chelsea FC’s rich owner, Roman Abramovich, was recently the victim of a suspected poisoning with chemical weapons.

According to reports, he was blind for several hours and had flesh ripped off his hands and face after taking part in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

The procedure claimed the life of former Russian spy and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006 after being poisoned with Polonium-210.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury in 2018 and survived.

While Ukrainian intelligence claims that elements of Russia’s elite are plotting to poison Putin himself.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Chief Directorate of Intelligence, “a number of important” Kremlin insiders are scheming to depose Putin.

It comes as Putin apparently turns on scores of people in his closest circle, blaming them for the failed invasion of Ukraine.

In his Facebook post, Nevzlin also claimed that 20 defence ministry generals, all from headquarters, had been jailed as part of a $10 billion “corruption” investigation that had resulted in the detention of 150 FSB personnel.

He stated that the arrested generals were all from “headquarters” rather than from the field in Ukraine, but provided no evidence of such widespread imprisonment during the Ukrainian war.

Among those jailed is Putin’s Svengali, Vladislav Surkov, the guy behind Russia’s heinous propaganda machine, who is said to be under house arrest.