Russia President Vladimir Putin (69) appeared limping and sat with a blanket over his lap during Victory Day commemorations in Moscow on Monday, raising new concerns about his health, according to the Daily Mail.
The Russian president attended the event, which commemorates Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945, to deliver a speech in which he projected an image of Russian strength and military might despite Ukraine’s deteriorating war.
However, Putin appeared to be walking with a heavy step at several points, including when he left a podium and went to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider to lay a wreath, according to the Daily Mail.
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During the parade, he was seen sitting with a heavy blanket across his knees, despite the fact that geriatric war veterans sat around him with their laps uncovered, according to the report.
Both incidents would be easy to dismiss on their own, but taken together, they will do little to dispel persistent rumors that Putin is ill.
Rumours about Putin’s health began to circulate two years before he decided to invade Ukraine, including claims that he had undergone cancer surgery.
Valery Solovei, a political analyst and prominent Putin critic, started spreading the rumor in late 2020, while also claiming he had Parkinson’s disease.
The rumours gained such traction that the Kremlin was forced to go on record and deny them, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisting that his boss was in ‘excellent health’ and that any rumour to the contrary was ‘complete nonsense,’ according to the Daily Mail.
But the whispering hasn’t stopped and has only gotten louder since the Ukraine war began, with critics claiming that Putin appears ill on television and has a puffy face.
Leaked footage from an early-war meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appeared to show pronounced arm and leg tremors.
