Putin’s top doctor, who is believed to have inside knowledge of despot’s medical secrets, has been arrested by the FSB after he was caught ‘seeking to flee the country’.

Russian vaccine and serum chief Viktor Trukhin, 59, went missing six days ago, and was simultaneously fired from his senior post at a top state institute amid ‘fraud’ allegations after his family reported him missing.

He is said to have inside knowledge of Russia’s latest research and development in the field of vaccines, serums and ‘bacterial preparations’.

Trukhin was detained by Vladimir Putin’s FSB counterintelligence service seeking to escape abroad via Belarus, reported Telegram channel Cheka-OGPU.

He was the longtime director of the St Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums.