Russian President Vladimir Putin is “very seriously ill,” said a former British intelligence official.
Christopher Steele is a former intelligence officer for MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, where he was in charge of the agency’s Russia desk from 2006 to 2009. It’s a pretty serious illness, actually,” he told Sky News.
“It’s not clear what exactly this disease is. Whether it’s incurable, terminal, or something else. But certainly, I think it’s part of the equation.” increase.”
Steele did not elaborate on who his source was.
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Steele is best known for The Steele Dossier, a report that surfaced in January 2017 containing allegations of links between Russia and current former U.S. President Donald Trump.
His claims about Putin’s health are the latest rumors in a flurry of speculation about the Russian leader. Ukrainian Army General Kirilo Budanov also told Sky News that Putin was “in a very bad state, mentally and physically, very unwell.” The general dismissed his suggestion that he was spreading propaganda.
Newsweek We have reached out to the Kremlin for comment.
Putin’s health has been in the public eye, in part because of these allegations, but also because of video clips that show Putin trembling or nervous.
One popular video shows Putin holding the table firmly during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier this year.British tabloid newspaper Sun Eric Bussy, a professor of communications at Texas Tech University, was quoted as saying that Putin “looked more and more feeble.” another clip Putin appears to have stumbled momentarily before meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in February this year.
The video fueled speculation that Putin may be suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
John Hardy, a neurogeneticist at the UK Dementia Research Institute, told DW that Putin “didn’t show any signs of Parkinsonism in my opinion.”
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Caroline Russell, CEO of Parkinson’s UK, said the condition “can only be confirmed after testing” and speculation on the issue is “useless”.
There are also claims that Putin has or had cancer. On April 1, Russian independent news agency Proekt Media said that from 2016 to 2019, a group of doctors, including a thyroid cancer surgeon, accompanied President Putin on a trip to his Sochi residence.
The report did not directly say that Putin had been diagnosed with cancer or any other illness, but the Kremlin denied that Putin underwent surgery for thyroid cancer that month. Moscow Times newspaper.
An anonymous Russian oligarch was also recorded in New Lines magazine saying that Putin is suffering from “blood cancer.”
