Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of much speculation, and not just since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022. Time and again, speculations about the Kremlin leader have circulated - for example, there have already been several speculations about his alleged state of health. You can read more about this here.
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The question of whether Russia's president still appears in public at all, or whether he has long been regularly represented by a double, has also been raised many times in recent months.
Conjecture about Putin's whereabouts
The statement of the Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, according to whose assessment it is questionable whether Putin is still alive, now strikes a similar note. This is reported by the news magazine t-online.
According to his statement, it could well be that the Putin 'everyone knows' was last seen in public in June 2022 and that he has since been represented by one or more doubles. He said, as quoted by Daily Mail:
The Putin who everyone used to know was last seen around June 26, 2022.
This would at least fit in with the downright paranoia that, according to other sources, has plagued the Russian president since the start of the war of aggression in Ukraine. Focus Online, for example, reports on this.
Read more:Vladimir Putin was allegedly kept waiting by Egyptian president during Russia-Africa summit
There are various possible reasons
Budanov goes on to say that there could be many reasons why Putin has not been seen in public for some time - according to this, apart from his alleged death, a serious illness could also be the cause, as well as the simple decision not to show himself in public any more.
Whether this information is reliable remains questionable. However, Budanov himself has already claimed several times - for example in an interview with the Reuters news agency reported by the Tagesspiegel - that his informants move in the closest Kremlin circles and are well informed about everything that is going on.
Kremlin has always denied rumours about the Russian President's ill health and have consistently stated that he is in the best shape.
Read more:Vladimir Putin: This is how the Russian President secretly travels to avoid getting attacked
This article has been translated from Gentside DE.
Sources used:
t-online: Top-Spion macht Andeutung: Lebt Putin noch?
Tagesspiegel: Ukrainischer Geheimdienst-Chef: 'Wir haben unsere Quellen, in den Büros eng bei Putin'
Focus Online: Völlig abgeschottet: Bunker, Doppelgänger, Isolation: Putins Paranoia wird immer abstruser
Daily Mail: Now Ukraine spy chief trolls Russia by suggesting that Vladimir Putin is DEAD and has been using doppelgängers in his place for the past year
