The Kremlin on Tuesday debunked media reports claiming that Vladimir Putin was “ill as he suffered cardiac arrest”. Laughing off at rumours that the Russian President used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the 71-year-old leader is “fine”.
When asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening, news agency Reuters quoted Peskov as saying, “Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake.”
On being asked about body doubles, the Kremlin spokesperson laughed and was quoted as saying, “This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile.”
A former Kremlin insider in a post on the social media site Telegram had claimed that Putin suffered a “cardiac arrest” in his private Moscow apartment on Sunday evening.
The Telegram channel, General SVR, which is reportedly run by a former lieutenant-general of the Russian army had claimed that Putin was found by guards on the floor of the bedroom “lying on the floor and rolling his eyes”.
The post also claimed that doctors were called immediately who then said that Putin “suffered a cardiac arrest”. It further claimed that he was transported to a special medical facility built in the apartment where he underwent intensive care.
News18 could not independently verify the authenticity of the claims.
“Security officers of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who were on duty at the residence, heard noise and sounds of falling coming from the president’s bedroom. Two security officers immediately followed into the president’s bedroom and saw Putin lying on the floor next to the bed and an overturned table with food and drinks,” the Telegram channel claimed, adding, “Putin convulsively arched while lying on the floor, rolling his eyes.”
It said that doctors “resuscitated” Putin but officially or independently the incident has not yet been confirmed but the development has caused fear and panic in Putin’s inner circle.
The same account earlier led to speculation that Putin uses body doubles.
It went on to claim that the body double held a phone conversation with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and meeting Kazbek Kokov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.
“While the unexpectedly well-coiffed double of Russian President Vladimir Putin is having a telephone conversation with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and meeting with the leader of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Kazbek Kokov, the real Putin lies in a room equipped as an intensive care ward in his residence,” the message on the Telegram channel, originally posted in Russian, said.
Notably, during an interview in 2020, the Russian President refuted rumours claiming that he uses body doubles.