Washington (CNN)Multiple US and western government officials tell CNN that the US has intelligence that Russia has drawn up lists of current political figures that it would target for removal in the event it invades Ukraine and topples the current government in Kyiv.
Sources familiar with the intelligence say the target lists are part of Russian planning to replace the current administration in Kyiv with a more Russia-friendly government, bolstering a previous disclosure by the British government identifying pro-Moscow figures it said Russia planned to install.
The most likely outcome for those politicians and public figures whom Moscow has targeted to be ousted in the event Kyiv falls, these sources say, is jail or assassination.
"We'll see what kinds of choices these people will be given, but a lot of them will be jailed or killed," said one source familiar with the intelligence. "I think for most it will depend on how cooperative these people are when the time comes and the circumstances in which they are captured or taken."
"If it's in public" — in front of cameras — "that'll be different, very different, from somebody who they corner in the middle of nowhere," this person added.
CNN has not seen the underlying intelligence intercepts or the documents that name the targets or the purported collaborators and their supposed positions in a pro-Russia administration.
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