Speculation about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health is only surpassed by theories surrounding the nature of his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
[TASS]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared in Paris on March 27, 2025, and boldly predicted the demise of his avowed enemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to end,” declared the man whose leadership through one of history’s more improbable military campaigns has been compared to Winston Churchill’s during the Battle of Britain.

Zelenskyy, who has been targeted by Russian assassins since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, apparently didn’t expand on the statement. How he expects Putin to die, by poor health or some other means, wasn’t clear. Putin has survived at least a half-dozen assassination attempts and a raft of rumoured health issues spanning more than two decades.

But Zelenskyy’s assertion spawned yet another wave of speculation about the 72-year-old Putin’s welfare after he has spent the last three-plus years directing an unexpectedly taxing war of aggression in Ukraine.

Putin in the 1960s. He’s now 72 years old. [Wikimedia]

Recent reports have claimed the Russian leader is cancer-ridden and suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The rumours, old and new, have never been proven.

In late 2016, Russian historian and political analyst Valery Solovei said Putin might be forced to step back from his role for health-related reasons. Putin did not. Again in 2020, Solovei and others variously claimed that Putin had cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, or leprosy and would imminently resign. He didn’t.

In December 2022, Solovei announced Putin was being treated with cancer drugs for an unspecified, advanced-stage cancer and “the end is already in sight.” It may have been, but he’s still alive.

Or is he?

“Putin will not live to see the end of autumn,” Solovei predicted Oct. 23, 2023.

Four days later, Solovei announced that Putin had died on Oct. 26 from complications related to cancer. Solovei insists the Putin we see now is a body double.

In January 2023, Zelenskyy publicly questioned whether Putin was still alive during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum and suggested that his nemesis might have already been replaced by a body double. More about that later.

“He will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to end.”
—Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Claims that Putin is days or weeks away from death have periodically circulated at least since he was said to have had a stroke in 2005.

Over the years, the former KGB agent has variously been rumored to be suffering from a laundry list of terminal cancers, debilitating diseases, surgery complications and the after-effects of a stroke. Beyond Solovei’s claims, some reports have said he is, in fact, dead.

Putin has been seen with trembling legs, puffy face, bloodshot eyes and a bruise on the back of his left hand. Some observers report a scar on his neck— indicative, they say, of thyroid cancer treatment. Media reports have often referenced a persistent cough and jerky, involuntary movements of his hands and feet.

In 2005, The Atlantic referenced a study by Brenda Connors, a motion analyst and research assistant at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., who examined videotape from Putin’s first inauguration.

Putin in KGB uniform circa 1980. He served as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He resigned in 1991 to launch a political career in St. Petersburg, Russia. [Wikimedia]

She said his gait, viewed in slow motion, appeared unusual, that his right arm and leg seemed unable to function properly. Connors suggested these could be signs of of stroke or childhood trauma or illness.

In July 2022, Bang Showbiz reported Putin had lost use of his right arm due to an unexplained medical crisis. The news agency referenced a video showing Putin swatting a mosquito with his left arm instead of his right to help support its claim.

Neurologists have noted, however, that several Russian officials such as Anatoly Sidorov and Sergei Ivanov who, like Putin, have specialized training by Soviet-era military and intelligence service, typically make limited use of their right arm, often holding it unnaturally stiff to their side in what is called gunslinger’s gait.

A 2015 study by European physicians published in the British Medical Journal compared video of various Russian officials against body movement instructions in a KGB training manual. It found this was likely a learned behavioral adaptation to allow quick access to a firearm in response to a sudden threat and probably not a signifier of any medical condition in either Putin or other high-profile Russians.

Neurologists have noted that several Russian officials typically make limited use of their right arm, often holding it in what is called gunslinger’s gait.

In 2022, the General Svr Telegram channel reported that Putin had soiled himself after falling down stairs, and blamed it on “cancer affecting his stomach and bowels.” Other reports point to his “increasingly erratic behaviour,” and there has been speculation about his mental health.

The New Statesman says many such allegations are based on “rumours swirling within the intelligence community and the old Soviet-era practice of Kremlinology, in which analysts scrutinise the leader’s public appearances for signs of physical decline and clues as to who might be in favour or out, in the absence of reliable information.”

“To be clear,” the news magazine’s Katie Stallard added in a piece first published June 2, 2022, “there is no verifiable evidence that Putin is seriously ill. Still less so that he is dead.”

Putin takes the presidential oath alongside Boris Yeltsin in May 2000. He had been appointed prime minister in 1999 before he was elected president after Yeltsin’s resignation a year later. [Presidential Press and Information Office]

In April 2022, however, the independent Russian media outlet Proekt cited leaked travel documents showing that Putin was, at a minimum, under close medical supervision.

It said its investigation revealed he had frequently been accompanied on trips to his Black Sea residence by a team of top doctors, including an oncology surgeon and two otolaryngologists, which it said was consistent with treatment for thyroid cancer. A Putin spokesman dismissed the claims as “fabrication and untruth.”

In the fall of 2023, Putin was reportedly found on his bedroom floor after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was said to have been resuscitated and taken to a special intensive-care facility at his official residence. The Kremlin denied the reports.

Nevertheless, two recent very public events stand out:

• Putin slouched in his seat and gripped the table throughout a 12-minute, televised meeting with his defence minister on April 21, 2022, prompting speculation he was trying to hide a trembling hand or the involuntary movements associated with Parkinson’s disease.
• Contrary to the robust, tough-guy image he was long known for, Putin covered his knees with a woolen blanket while watching the Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, 2022, spawning more speculation.

“There is no verifiable evidence that Putin is seriously ill. Still less so that he is dead.”
—Katie Stallard, The New Statesman

The New York Times has said Putin’s health became a particular “subject of lurid speculation, internet video forensics, and potential wartime propaganda” since the invasion of Ukraine, “even though U.S. officials say there is no evidence the Russian leader is dying.”

William Burns said during his 2021-25 tenure as CIA director that “as far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy.” Richard Moore, head of Britain’s MI6, said there is “no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious illness.”

Regardless, evidence that Putin has resorted to body doubles, ostensibly as a defence against potential assassination attempts, is relatively strong. Putin himself has denied the claims, acknowledging the prospect was raised but he refused it.

Nevertheless, theories abound. Proponents believe body doubles have been surgically altered to resemble the real Putin, but the devil is in the details: they point to contrasting facial features such as the chin, earlobes and forehead wrinkles as evidence of one or more lookalikes. Ukrainian intelligence cites varying gestures, body language, earlobes and especially height as giveaways.

The many faces of Vladimir Putin. Experts believe the Russian president has at least two body doubles. [Ukrainian Military Intelligence]

A team of Japanese researchers used facial recognition software and voice identifiers to compare known recordings of Putin with suspect ones. Based on similarities between the genuine article and his suspected doppelgängers as low as 18 per cent, they claim there are at least two body doubles.

“Experts on face recognition would refer to this as ‘not matching’ in most cases, which leads us to the assumption this can be a double,” said Shinji Hyodo, research secretary for Japan’s National Institute for Defence Studies.

In addition, Japan’s Institute of Audio Communication Laboratory conducted voice analysis of Putin. It focused on voice biometrics, specifically multiple utterances of the word spasibo (thank you).

Newsweek reported that the researchers found the Putin who spoke at the Eurasian Economic Forum at Moscow in May 2023, believed to be the real deal, exhibited distinct vocal characteristics from three additional Putin instances. The researchers said they deduced that Putin’s voice differed during the forum in comparison to that in other public appearances.

Expert Mutsutoshi Muraoka told the British newspaper Metro: “There is a difference in the recording conditions, as well as the utterance as it is, but still it is extremely rare to have such strong differences. We have to say at this point that the possibility of these two voices belonging to different people is high.”