Vladimir Putin has unsurprisingly been re-elected as President of Russia after a three-day election. The Russian head of state, who is now starting his fifth term in office, has repeatedly caused controversy in recent years, and not only because of his attack on Ukraine, which violated international law.
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Last but not least, there are numerous rumours and speculations surrounding his allegedly critical state of health - for example, the Kremlin leader is said to be suffering from Parkinson's disease or even cancer, as some observers claim to have diagnosed. And the speculation about the possible use of doppelgängers instead of the real Putin continues unabated.
Stalin's great-grandson comments on body double rumours
None other than the great-grandson of former Russian dictator Josef Stalin, Jakob Yugashvili, has now spoken out on this topic - with a clear assessment. In his opinion, it is 'very likely' that Vladimir Putin 'disappeared a long time ago'. This was reported by the British newspaper The Sun and the German magazine news.de.
In truth, he believes that the real Putin has been dead for a long time. Instead, doubles have been used at public appearances and events for years in order to maintain the balance in the Kremlin, Yugashvili speculates, explaining that more recent pictures of the Russian head of state allegedly do not match earlier images.
No clear statement from the Kremlin
With this assessment, he also fueled the recent speculation surrounding the statements by press spokesman Andriy Yusov, who had declared that Putin was represented by at least three doppelgängers. And on the occasion of Putin's New Year's address, which was broadcast throughout the country, there has already been speculation as to whether the recordings were made by artificial intelligence.
The Kremlin itself has repeatedly denied such rumors - for example, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly rejected rumors of Putin's alleged death at the end of last year, as reported by the Münchener Merkur.However, there has been no statement on the Russian president's actual state of health to date.
This article has been translated from Gentside DE.
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Sources used:
The Sun: "FACES OF EVIL I’m Stalin’s great-grandson – Putin is ‘likely DEAD’ & mystery Kremlin insiders have been using body doubles for years"
news.de: "Jakob Jugaschwili: Stalin-Urenkel glaubt Doppelgänger-Theorie: Putin "sehr wahrscheinlich" tot"
Münchener Merkur: "Gerüchte um Putins Tod: Kreml-Sprecher nennt neue Details"
