The media reported that a bloated Vladimir Putin was seen gripping a table and slouching in his chair during a televised meeting with his defence minister, amid rumours that the Russian strongman is battling cancer.
In a rare live video appearance, Putin declared that Russia had ‘liberated’ the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and he savagely ordered Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to seal off all routes out of the Azovstal steelworks, where defiant Ukrainians are holed up,’so that even a fly cannot pass through.’
Bloated Putin fuels Parkinson’s rumours after ‘gripping table, slouching and constantly tapping foot’ pic.twitter.com/lPpnWPR6bv
— The Sun (@TheSun) April 22, 2022
However, Putin’s poor posture and apparent bloated face and neck sparked speculation about the Russian leader’s health, which has reportedly been deteriorating since his invasion of Ukraine, according to the Daily Mail.
According to the Daily Mail, Putin was speaking to Shoigu while gripping the edge of the table with his right hand – so tightly that it appeared white – and tapping his foot repeatedly.
Shoigu appears to have fared no better in the eight weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the defence minister slurring his words and reading from notes after an apparent heart attack.
According to Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist and former adviser to Ukraine and Russia, the video depicted Putin and Shoigu as “depressed and seemingly in poor health.”
“Shoigu has to read his comments to Putin and slurs badly, suggesting that the rumours of his heart attack are likely. He sits badly. Poor performance,” Daily Mail reported.
Prof Erik Bucy of Texas Tech University, a body language expert, told The Sun Online: “It’s astonishingly weakened Putin compared to the man we observed even a few years ago.
“An able-bodied president would not need to keep himself propped up with a hand held out for leverage and would not be concerned about keeping both feet planted on the ground.”
