Amidst the beginning of the week, General SVR, a Telegram channel renowned for shadowing the Kremlin, issued a proclamation, asserting that Vladimir Putin had encountered a “cardiac arrest” the previous evening. This announcement, rather startlingly, implied that all recent public appearances, including foreign diplomatic missions, were orchestrated by a doppelgänger or doppelgängers.
The Kremlin, in response to these allegations, categorically refuted any notion that Russian President Vladimir Putin had undergone a cardiac episode just two sunsets ago. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, dismissed the report as spurious, declaring, “His health remains in robust condition, and this is but another manifestation of fictitious information.”
Peskov’s response to queries concerning the potential use of body doubles by Putin was lighthearted. “Such discussions delve into the realm of ludicrous and fictitious information, topics that certain media outlets persistently propagate. They elicit nothing but a wry grin,” Peskov remarked, as reported by Reuters.
On the initial day of the week, General SVR, the cryptic Telegram channel that meticulously shadows Kremlin activities, disseminated an assertion. It alleged that around 21:05 Moscow time, Putin’s security personnel were alerted by noises and the clatter of objects falling from the president’s private quarters. Two security agents hastily rushed to the scene, discovering Putin recumbent on the floor near his bedside. An overturned table, accompanied by remnants of meals and libations, surrounded him, the channel disclosed.
“Presumably, as the president tumbled, he inadvertently struck the table, causing the crockery and glassware to crash to the floor, generating the cacophony. Putin lay convulsing on the floor, his gaze unfocused. The onsite medical practitioners, situated in a nearby chamber, were urgently summoned,” relayed the enigmatic channel, as quoted by the UK’s Mirror.
The identity of this channel remains concealed, but it routinely issues intelligence on Kremlin matters. It had consistently communicated concerns about Putin’s health, citing his battle with oncological ailments and various other afflictions. “This incident of cardiac arrest gravely perturbed the president’s inner circle, despite prior warnings from attending physicians, who had already expressed the improbability of Putin surviving beyond the autumn’s conclusion.”
Notably, Putin recently embarked on a diplomatic visit to China, where he participated in the tenth assembly of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
In a candid interview conducted in 2020, Putin dispelled speculations regarding the utilization of body doubles. He acknowledged the proposition of such a safeguard but underscored his personal disinterest in employing such stratagems, as recounted by Reuters.