Kremlin rejects speculations on Putin's health, says he's fit, not using body doubles

The Kremlin on Tuesday (October 24) rejected speculation about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health, saying he was fit and well.

Responding to media queries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied suggestions that the president was using body doubles, calling that an “absurd hoax”. The clarification came after an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, claimed that Putin had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.

President Putin turned 71 on October 7 and recently visited China with stop-offs in two Russian cities on the way back. He maintains an intensive schedule of meetings and public appearances, many of them televised. The Telegram channel ‘General SVR’ quoted by several reports claimed that Putin’s security officers found him lying on his bedroom floor around 9 pm.

“At about 21:05 Moscow time, 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,” it said.

“Probably, when the president fell, he hit the table and dishes and knocked them onto the floor, which caused the noise. Putin convulsively arched while lying on the floor, rolling his eyes. The doctors who were on duty at the residence and located in one of the adjacent rooms were immediately called,” the channel’s statement read as per reports.

In a 2020 interview, Putin denied longstanding rumours that he uses body doubles, even though he said he had been offered the chance to use one in the past for security reasons. In April this year, the Kremlin said that talk of body doubles was “yet another lie” and that Putin was in enviable health.