Image: Russian Media
The Kremlin has long denied there is anything wrong with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite rumors circulating for years that he is ill and constantly monitored by a team of doctors.
Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, said the Russian leader will be gone by 2023 due to medical issues.
The authoritarian ruler was recently photographed with suspected track marks from multiple intravenous catheters on the back of his hand when he made a rare appearance at a Russian training camp and fired a sniper rifle.
Kyiv Post journalist Jason Jay Smart tweeted screenshots from a video showing a blemish clearly visible on Putin’s hand, New York Post reported.
Now the U.K. publication The Sun has reported that it saw emails from a Russian intelligence source close to the Kremlin that appeared to confirm Putin has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
“I can confirm he has been diagnosed with early stage Parkinson’s disease, but it’s already progressing,” the Russian security services insider claimed in the email. “This fact will be denied in every possible way and hidden.
“Putin is regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative painkilling injections to stop the spread of pancreatic cancer he was recently diagnosed with. It not only causes a lot of pain, Putin has a state of puffiness of the face and other side effects – including memory lapses.
“In his close circle, there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer.”
Stage IV pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of 1 percent, but has the potential to be curable if caught very early, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
The Telegram channel General SVR channel has long made unverified claims that Putin is suffering from abdominal cancer, Parkinson’s and a schizoaffective disorder, UK publication Mirror reported.
General SVR reported this week that Putin’s inner circle is worried that his “thinness and persistent cough is becoming noticeable and will be seen by the elites in Russia as a sign of the leader’s rapidly deteriorating health.”
Putin likes a manly image and is famous for riding bare-chested on horseback, the New York Times reported in 2014. When Hillary Clinton compared Russia’s seizure of Crimea to Hitler’s aggression in the 1930s, Putin laughed and said, “It’s better not to argue with women. When people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak.”
Political analyst Valery Solovey claims Putin’s health “is deteriorating… dramatically” and suggested his medical conditions have impacted his judgment in the war against Ukraine.
The Russian president has repeatedly mentioned using nuclear weapons — something that “makes sense” for Putin if he only has a few months to live, game theory specialist Georgy Egorov told Novaya Gazeta. “If the rumours about his health problems are true – if he has a few months left to live – he does not want to go down in history as a loser.”
