General SVR announces that Putin‘s health is deteriorating.
Last weekend, Vladimir Putin’s health condition reportedly worsened, reported a Telegram channel that monitors the Russian president’s health.
At midnight on Saturday, he had “severe nausea” and doctors intervened around three in the morning, the General SVR channel reported.
Putin has now recovered, it is claimed, but could be replaced by a lookalike during meetings this week as the technology is used for televised appearances.
The news comes just days after Ukraine’s intelligence chief suggested Putin had been replaced by a double during a state visit to Iran.
Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, has previously claimed that Putin is secretly being treated for cancer and that chief adviser Nikolai Patrushev regularly replaces him during operations.
None of the channel’s claims have been confirmed, but Putin would not be the first Russian leader to use these methods.
Stalin is believed to have used multiple doubles during his time at the helm of the Soviet Union, two of whom have since spoken out about the experience.
Putin himself has admitted that he considered using decoys for protection during the Chechen war, but claims that he rejected the idea and that it was never implemented.
General SVR, which claims to be led by a former officer of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, said today that “Putin needed urgent medical assistance on the night of Friday, July 22nd to Saturday, July 23rd. Around 1:00 a.m., the president called the medical staff at his residence. Putin complained of severe nausea. About twenty minutes later, an additional medical team with the president’s doctors, it is known that the doctors helped him and stayed with him for three hours and after his condition improved, they left his room.”
Otherwise, CIA Director William Burns said last week that Putin was also “very healthy”.
The Kremlin routinely denies that Putin has health problems.