New rumours swirled today over Vladimir Putin’s health as a speech by his top security aide emerged referring to the Russian dictator entirely in the past tense.
Nikolai Patrushev – a former head of the FSB security service and seen as Moscow’s most sinister spymaster – dressed in black and gave a eulogy to the autocrat which sounded more like an obituary.
Russia has been swamped by speculation that the warmonger died in late October and his role was taken over by a doppelgänger controlled by his most loyal security henchmen.
The rumours appear impossible and almost comical – and yet they only increase by the day.
And Putin’s ‘lover’ – Alina Kabaeva, 40 – has vanished and not been seen in public since the dictator was reported by several sources to have died on 26 October, two weeks ago.
The latest fantastical rumours came as a cringing video showed Putin today stumbling over the name of the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during a rare foreign visit to his neighbouring state.
Some saw this as evidence that Putin has been replaced by a body double who had failed to learn his lines.
But a speech by Patrushev – seen by many as the architect of the disastrous war in Ukraine – shocked even loyalists.
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His words were compared to those of his predecessor Lavrentiy Beria – KGB chief – after the death of Stalin in 1953.
Patrushev, virulently anti-Western secretary of the Russian Security Council and seen by some as the man now in unofficial control of the Kremlin, said in a video which emerged today but was delivered on Saturday: ‘Tired of the dashing 1990s, [Russian] society was waiting for the solution of social and economic problems and strengthening of national security.
’It required a leader who could put the welfare of the population at the top of the agenda, display the highest human and organisational qualities, will and dedication.
‘Such a leader was Putin, who first served as Prime Minister, then was elected President and, in accordance with the Constitution, became Chairman of the Russian Security Council.
‘He knew in detail the state of affairs in the country, had a clear programme of action, saw the goal, imagined the tasks that should be solved to achieve it, the sequence of steps, as well as the necessary forces, means and resources.
’At the same time he realised the critical importance of an evolutionary approach as opposed to revolutionary leaps, always weakening the Russian state.
’[He] believed in people and the reliability of their support and backing, realised and consciously assumed all responsibility for the salvation of the Fatherland.’
The evident ‘obituary’ came the day after Putin’s spokesman made a surprising admission that Patrushev had the full authority to speak for the Kremlin in matters regarding nuclear war.
‘The fact is that Patrushev is the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation,’ said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
‘And, in fact, this is part of the Kremlin, what is called the Kremlin.
‘Therefore, this is considered a statement from the Kremlin, of course.’
Most authorities dismiss as conspiracy theories claims from political analyst Professor Valery Solovey and Telegram channel General SVR that Putin died on 26 October and his corpse stashed in a freezer at his forest palace in Valdai, north of Moscow.
But opposition politician and former FSB colonel Gennady Gudkov, with more than 200,000 followers, said: ‘Patrushev, dressed in black, makes a speech about the great comrade Putin in the past tense: he was, he became, he led, he inspired…
’Has the memorial service begun?
’Is it “Vasilyevich” on the throne? Have Valery Solovey’s predictions actually come true?’
Many suspect Patrushev aims to install his wealthy son Dmitry, 46, now agriculture minister, as president in the future.
Political scientist Andrey Piontkovsky said: ‘[This] was the same speech made by Beria, Patrushev’s predecessor, on the podium of [Lenin’s] mausoleum on 6 March 1953 about Stalin, who had been killed the day before.
‘Is Professor Solovey right?’
The Kremlin has been forced to issue a succession of recent denials that Putin has been replaced by a body double.
A Japanese study using hi-tech AI science suggested there are several Putins, assumed to be actors who have undergone plastic surgery and training by his ex-KGB secret service.
Peskov admitted: ‘Experts are guessing, are there three or four doubles?’
Solovey – formerly a professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training academy for spies and diplomats – insists Putin passed away.
He has claimed for years that Putin had cancer and was ailing.
‘He died in the evening around 8:40 pm on Thursday, October 26th,’ he said, claiming inside knowledge.
‘Now he is in the refrigerator compartment of his residence in Valdai.
’Humiliating, isn’t it? Well, probably deservedly so.
’There is no doubt about his physical death. Absolutely none, not the slightest.
’At the turn of 2019-20, he was diagnosed with a severe form of cancer.
’Severe and not amenable to long-term remission.
’In February 2020, Israeli doctors performed an operation on him, and then they determined his survival horizon to be a maximum of one and a half years….’
The analyst, seen by critics as a conspiracy theorist, said: ‘With the help of targeted therapy, they managed to shift the horizon [of survival]. That is, he lived until 2023.
‘But in March 2023, these same doctors told him that all medical possibilities had been exhausted, and then everything was in God’s hands.
’Whether this was actually the case or not, no one knows, because at that moment the Israeli leadership was extremely dissatisfied with Russia’s tricks with Iran.
’With the fact that Russia promised to help Iran in creating a number of critical technologies.
’One way or another, in the spring they stopped treating him, and an inevitable deterioration in his health began, which had previously been delayed.’
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