Ukraine leader Zelensky predicts Putin ‘will die soon’ amid speculation over Russian despot Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin ‘will die soon, and that’s a fact’ Volodymyr Zelensky boldly said Wednesday in an interview with Eurovision News.
While the words above may not be as bold a statement as it first appears, Putin has been plagued by rumours of ill health over recent months and years.
Putin’s physical appearance has also come under intense scrutiny, with pictures earlier this year of him with red eyes and a mystery bruise on his hand fuelling speculation that his health is deteriorating.
Also, some of his images in recent years have shown him with a prominent scar on his neck – sparking theories that he had undergone surgery for thyroid cancer.
Reports also abounded around the start of the war in Ukraine that the 72-year-old dictator was constantly accompanied by a specialist cancer doctor, while a US intelligence leak also appeared to confirm that he was undergoing chemotherapy.
Other indicators of potential ill health include moments when he has appeared unsteady with his legs buckling, while other clips have seen him gripping a table and tapping his foot.
So far, medical professionals think that he could be suffering from Parkinson’s – a claim backed up by a former British intelligence chief who said contacts had informed him that something was ‘fundamentally wrong’ medically with the dictator.
In 2022, Moscow was forced to deny rumours that Putin soiled himself after falling down a flight of stairs – reportedly defecating ‘involuntarily’ due to ‘cancer affecting his stomach and bowels.’
Back in October, Moscow forced to rush out a statement denying Putin has health problems after he admitted undergoing regular examinations at a top Moscow hospital.
Putin was speaking in a televised session with his health minister Mikhail Murashko aimed at encouraging people to have flu jabs.
‘Doctors at the Central Clinical Hospital, where I undergo all sorts of regular examinations, also recommend getting vaccinated with domestically produced drugs,’ said Putin.
State news agency TASS insisted that Putin ‘has no health problems’ as it emphasised his visits to a hospital known as the Kremlin Clinic were for normal check-ups.
His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘He meant routine medical examinations.’
But then in November, strange footage showed Putin’s legs twitching uncontrollably at a public event amid rumours he has Parkinson’s disease.
He appeared unable to control his movements as he gave an hour-long speech at a podium in Astana, Kazakhstan.
In the clip, the twitching seems to start in his left foot before affecting both his legs and feet.
Putin then took a wider stance but continued to rock back onto his heels and move his legs.
Sir Richard, who was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service when Putin first came to power in 2000, told LBC his contacts believe the Russian President had the disease, which can seriously impact life expectancy.
The former spymaster even suggested that paranoia – a symptom of Parkinson’s – could have contributed to Putin’s decision to dispose of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
He said Parkinson’s ‘of course has different representations, different variations, different seriousness,’ but added: ‘If the man is paranoid – and I think the murder of Navalny might suggest a certain paranoia – that is one of the symptoms.’
