Putin health: Russian president ‘had cancer’ but has since ‘licked it’

Russia: Putin losing his grip on power says expert

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is thought to have become an increasingly isolated figure in the Kremlin. This isn’t because there is clear evidence that his colleagues are turning on him, but instead due to his policy of restricting how many people are allowed to come in close proximity of him. This approach was adopted during the COVI-19 pandemic but remained long after the peak of the health crisis. It was seen in February this year when French President Emmanuel Macron visited Moscow, and was forced to sit opposite Putin at a six-metre-long table.

One possible explanation for Putin’s health paranoia are the reports that the Russian president has suffered from cancer in recent years. These claims are not confirmed, but an independent media outlet produced compelling evidence that could indicate they are true.  

In April, investigative outlet Proekt reported that Putin has traveled with an oncologist on numerous occasions, and that his medical team grew from five in 2016 and 2017 to nine in 2019.

According to the records attained by Proekt, surgeon Evgeny Selivanov flew to see Putin 35 times in four years. More bizarrely, the report claimed that Putin had resorted to bathing in deer antlers and blood in an attempt to improve his health, a practice which has shown no healing effects. 

One of the few figures in the West who has built a relationship with Putin is film director Oliver Stone, who claimed in May that the Russian did have cancer but was cured. Speaking to podcaster Lex Fridman, Mr Stone said: “Remember this, Mr Putin has had this cancer and I think he’s licked it. But he’s also been isolated because of Covid.”

Mr Stone is one of a number of Russia watchers to suggest that Putin’s isolated state since the pandemic may have contributed to the Russian military’s struggles in Ukraine.

The filmmaker added: “You would think he was not well informed perhaps, about the degree of cooperation he would get from the [ethnic Russians] in Ukraine…

“That would be one factor, that he didn’t assess the situation correctly.”

Mr Stone got to know Putin on a more personal level when he filmed his four-part interview series with the Russian President called ‘The Putin Interviews’, released in 2017. In it, Putin speaks openly about tensions with the West and also with Ukraine.

But Mr Stone believes the Putin he spoke to then is a different man to the one who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He said: “It’s been three years since I saw him for the last time, but the man I knew had nothing to do with the mad, irresponsible and murderous man that the media present today comparing him to Hitler and Stalin.

“The Putin I knew was rational, calm, always acting in the interest of the Russian people, a true son of Russia, a patriot, which does not imply a nationalist.”

In May, a former Briitsh spy echoed the claims that Putin has endured health difficulties. Christopher Steele, who worked on Russia with MI6, said the “exact details” of Putin’s illness was unknown but added that Putin was “constantly” accompanied by medical professionals.

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Speaking to LBC, he said: “He’s constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors. Meetings of the security council that are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour are actually broken up into several sections… he goes out and receives some kind of medical treatment between those sections.

“And so clearly he is seriously ill, I mean how terminal or incurable it is not clear… we can’t be entirely sure. But it’s certainly having a very serious impact on the governance of Russia at the moment.”

Just two weeks after these comments, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Putin was ill. Speaking to French media, he said: “You know, President Putin appears in public every day. You can see him on the screens, read his speeches, listen to his speeches.

“I don’t think sane people can discern any sort of symptom of disease in this man.”

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