The problem with being a brutal dictator who stabs and slashes his way to the top - literally - is that you will not be a hard man for ever: age and infirmity will catch up with you eventually, no matter who you are.
I am reminded of the death of old Joe Stalin, who fell out of bed in his later years and was not found for hours as his guards, who were petrified of him, didn't dare to disturb his sleep.
When his doctors were summoned to care for him, they didn't want to pronounce one way or the other what was wrong because Stalin had in the recent past sent some of his doctors to the gulag simply because he didn't like what they'd told him.
Fearing Stalin's rage, they messaged the Soviet high command who, oddly enough, took their sweet time deciding what to do next, possibly because they wanted Stalin dead themselves. Lavrentiy Beria, who was pretty much Stalin's deputy at the time, saw Stalin's unconscious body in his piss-soaked clothing and told his guards to "leave Comrade Stalin alone as he is clearly sleeping. "
There is a glorious bit in Krushchev's memoirs where Beria had "gone about spewing hatred of Stalin and mocking him" as his leader lay unconscious, only to drop to his knees and kiss Stalin's ring as he briefly came too as Beria stood by his sick bed.
As soon as Stalin passed out again, Beria leapt to his feet - and spat on the floor.
Anyway, it was.some time before they sent Stalin's current medics to speak to the imprisoned doctors who had been treating him, who promptly confirmed that he'd had a series of minor strokes recently, which they had been trying to treat, not that Stalin wanted to hear any of that.
Stalin died a week after his fall - his daughter said that at the end he choked to death in great agony. He had probably suffered one last massive stroke, which would likely have killed him anyway, but the delays in getting any medics to treat him undoubtedly didn't help.
Putin, of course was a good little Communist...so much so in fact that he was a high ranking member of the KGB for some years. I feel certain he has heard the story of Stalin's death...how could he not have?
Dictators are surrounded by people who are too terrified to tell them the truth, and people who are just waiting for their turn to stick the knife in, possibly literally, as soon as they show the slightest sign of weakness. They have few people around them that they can really trust - 'tis the nature of the beast, alas and the story of Stalin's pathetic end illustrates this quite nicely.
Vladimir Putin is now a very sick man, if the rumours are true.
Oh dear.....