Vladimir Putin brutally mocked in AI memes over assassination and coup fears

Vladimir Putin is being ridiculed on social media for his paranoia over an assassination bid. The Kremlin dictator is reported to be hunkering in his bunkers over concerns that his own entourage is plotting a coup. This is separate from the new threat he faces from Ukraine ’s missiles and drones which are now far more lethal and able to strike at longer distances. The memes show him turned into a laughing stock as he fears his Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow on Saturday could be disrupted by attacks by Volodymyr Zelensky . He is seen under an armour-plated umbrella and covered by anti-drone nets as he seeks protection. An AI video shows the 73-year-old Russian ruler being hunted by a Ukrainian UAV. “A drone is chasing me,” says Putin. “Get away from me! Stop! Police! Help! It's right above me. Stay where you are! What is happening? Who is controlling this thing?” The camera switches to show the controls in the hands of Zelensky, who said today that the war will end immediately if Putin stops attacking, something he refuses to do. Despite this, the Kremlin despot has been forced to hold the parade without the traditional tanks and missile carriers - because he needs them for the war. One meme shows soldiers marching with tanks made of cardboard. He is satirised for being forced to plead with Zelensky - “Mr Supreme Commander-in-Chief” - for a ceasefire to make his propaganda parade safe. Memes highlighted by Ukrainian outlet Telegram show Putin inside a so-called “mangal” - a metal cage structure typically mounted on armoured vehicles to protect them from drones. It is being pushed across Red Square by Russian soldiers. Another depicts him delivering a speech at the parade from inside the same cage, with a padlock on the door locked from the outside. He is shown seeking protection in a zorb—a transparent inflatable sphere—followed by Russian military vehicles. In another image, he sits among Second World War veterans, but unlike them, he is wearing full metal armour. Yet another shows him on Red Square with two veterans holding an overhead frame fitted with an anti-drone net above him. One more shows Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin pulling Putin inside his mausoleum on Red Square in a symbolic “Your time is up!” gesture. Another parodies Putin and his ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu leading the “toilet troops” - a reference to the looting of loos from Ukrainian homes by Russian forces during the invasion. They are on a cart pulled by donkeys. One commenter Sergey Afanasyev said: “Putin is a war criminal who belongs not on the podium on 9 May, but in The Hague. “His cult of personality is built on a facade: the tsar, the parade, the fanfare. But what is needed is desacralisation. So that the whole flock can see: the emperor has no clothes, the empire is full of holes, and the ‘great geo-strategist’ is nothing but a frightened old man, looking up at the sky.”