The favorite driver of Russian president Vladimir Putin lost his life when a Mercedes CLS sedan slammed into the BMW 7 Series the presidential chauffeur was driving on Kutuzovsky Avenue, a busy motorway located in the heart of Moscow.

Multiple CCTV cameras caught the whole incident on tape, from the moment the CLS started driving in the middle lane of the highway right up to when the Mercedes driver lost control of the car, slamming it head-on into the 7 Series that Putin’s driver was driving on the other side of the road. The impact saw the CLS violently spin before coming to a stop while the 7 Series remained prone as motorists and pedestrians rushed to the scene to attempt to help out the driver.

The unidentified chauffeur reportedly had more than 40 years of driving experience under his belt, but even that couldn’t prevent him from avoiding the out-of-the-control Mercedes before it crashed into the presidential car. According to reports, the chauffeur died upon impact while the driver of the CLS was sent to the hospital and is in critical condition.

The Russian president was not in the 7 Series as he was attending the G20 summit in China when the crash occurred.

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Conspiracy theorists shouting foul play

In a somewhat predictable turn of events, The Millennium Report, a pro-Putin website immediately threw shade over the crash, claiming that it was an “audacious threat” and a possible assassination attempt directed at the Russian president by an “inside group of foreign secret service agents.” The claims are of course unsubstantiated and was made a group of conspiracy theorists who are known for ruffling feathers any chance it gets.

While we don’t subscribe to that outlandish narrative, we do feel a swell of sympathy to the family and friends of President Putin’s chauffeur, who are still coming to grips with the loss of a loved one in the most abrupt way imaginable.