‘Real Putin hasn't been in public for 14 months - and could already be dead'

03 September 2023 , 12:07

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Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has alleged the “real” Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public for more than a year.

Major-General Kyrylo Budanov has doubled down on earlier claims that one or more doppelgängers are used in place of Putin. Budanov said he does not know if Putin is still alive. In an extraordinary interview, Budanov - who spearheads drone strikes and undercover operations against Russia - alleged about Putin: “The one, who everyone used to know, was last seen around 26 June 2022.”

He was asked in an interview: “So he is either not alive, or else he is in a really bad health state?" Budanov replied: “Or he doesn’t want to appear. There might be so many different reasons.” Budanov referenced a recent video where the Russian dictator was seen looking at his watch on the wrong wrist.

The real Putin always wears his watch on his right wrist. But in the video, he looked at first at his left wrist - even though he was wearing the watch on his right wrist. Bizarrely Putin then took off his watch and started fidgeting with it.

Budanov was asked by TV presenter Anzhelika Rudenko, on Crimea.Realities, linked to Radio Liberty: “Is this a real Putin?” Budanov replied: “Let’s leave it to everyone [to decide], so everyone leaves it to their own fantasy.” He was pressed: “But is this Putin or…?” The presenter said she believed it was a body double and not the real Putin. Budanov replied: “So do I”.

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Rudenko, asked him: “And as for the real Putin, let me ask you directly - is he alive or not?” The military intelligence chief replied: “I don’t know what to answer you.” Putin has admitted that his aides previously asked him if he wanted to use body doubles, as did Stalin and Brezhnev, but said he rejected the plan.

‘Real Putin hasn't been in public for 14 months - and could already be dead'

Russian President Vladimir Putin might already be dead, according to the head of Ukraine's military intelligence (AP)

Yet he is known to be paranoid over his security. On the date mentioned by Budanov - 26 June 2022 - there were reports Putin had been in a late-night dash to the Kremlin an hour before midnight. Video showed his Aurus limousine driving to his Moscow seat of power at 11pm on Saturday June 25. This immediately followed talks with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko in St Petersburg, 440 miles away, in which he agreed to supply advanced nuclear-capable arms to the Minsk dictator. A night of bombardment on Ukrainian cities - including Kyiv - from Russian warplanes using Belarus airspace followed the meeting.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not deny the late-night dash to the Kremlin, but ruled out the purpose being a crisis meeting of top officials. He also denied that Putin was to make an immediate emergency statement. Peskov in a late night statement told TASS: “No. Everything is not like that. Everything is normal.” Yet Peskov did not explain the purpose of Putin’s sudden visit.

On 25 June 2022, Putin said: "We will transfer Iskander-M tactical missile systems to Belarus, which can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions,” Rumours have swirled that Putin uses body doubles - yet they have remained just that, rumours, and the notion appears preposterous. Often such claims are linked to the theory that the dictator is suffering a terminal illness, but that he and his entourage refuse to let the Putin persona die.

Many have noted how the real Putin was social distancing long after the evident need to do so. This was seen as a sign of health problems in Putin. Yet while many officials were ordered to quarantine for one or two weeks before seeing him, on multiple occasions Putin has jumped into crowds with no social distancing. This deepened the theory that there were two Putins.

Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

On Friday, he staged a spontaneous visit to a Tver region village from where his ancestors hailed. He engaged in brief banter with locals, agreeing they needed more investment.

Telegram channel General SVR has long claimed that a sickly Putin now permanently uses a doppelgänger - a lookalike actor who has undergone plastic surgery - for public appearances. Political analyst Dr Valery Solovey, a Putin-watching former professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations, a training school for spies and diplomats, said last month that the dictator uses a double but that he was seen at a meeting in early August with his former KGB crony Sergei Chemezov, now CEO of Rostec.

Putin was too ill to fight the presidential election due in Russia in March 2024, he said. “He can hardly get out of bed, with difficulty getting dressed," Solovey added.

"He claimed Western leaders were well aware of his ailing health,” he said. “President Putin…simply will not be able to participate in the elections…will not be able to, physically. President Putin cannot put his own trousers on without external assistance, let alone participate in elections. And if he puts them on without external help, he then needs to rest afterwards. He is in such terrible physical shape, it is getting worse. It is getting worse literally day by day….”

The prospects were bleak, he said. “In all public appearances the president is now replaced by a doppelgänger, a so-called double,” he said. There were sometimes "comic errors", he claimed, as with the watch. “Western governments know perfectly well that President Putin is replaced by double…It is known by leaders of all more or less large countries across the world but everyone turns a blind eye. Why? After all, these are [the] affairs of these strange Russians, let them do their thing, and fool their own people….”