Vladimir Putin may have Parkinson’s disease as something is “fundamentally wrong” with the Russian President.
A former head of MI6 claimed sources in Europe believe Putin’s health is deteriorating.
Sir Richard Dearlove, who headed the British intelligence service between 1999 and 2004, suggested Parkinson’s disease could be to blame.
A symptom of the disease can be delusions which could explain Putin’s apparent “paranoia”.
A symptom of the disease can be delusions which could explain Putin’s apparent “paranoia”
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The comments come after the death of prominent anti-Putin Russian figure Alexei Navalny.
Often unsubstantiated speculation about Putin’s health has been circulating for a number of years.
There have been theories about the 71-year-old having cancer and even using a body double.
Sir Richard told LBC: “I do not have a clear answer to that but I have contacts and friends still in Eastern Europe who think there is something fundamentally wrong with him medically. But I’m not a clinician.”
He added: “Probably Parkinson’s which of course has different representations, different variations, different seriousness.
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Alexei Navalny died at 47 in prison last weekREUTERS“But if the man is paranoid, and I think the murder of Navalny might suggest a certain paranoia, that is one of the symptoms.”
Navalny, a longstanding critic of Putin, died in an Arctic prison last Friday.
He was kept at the Siberian penal institution in solitary confinement for up to two weeks at a time.
Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron condemned the death, saying: “It’s clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him.”
Navalny was kept behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia.
The Russian President has clamped down on his political opponents
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He received life-saving treatment in Germany from novichok poisoning and blamed the Kremlin for the incident.
Moscow has denied involvement in Navalny’s death.
However, Navalny’s death came as Putin prepares for his re-election.
Despite an expected easy victory for the Russian President, Putin critic Boris Nadezhdin claimed he has been banned from standing.
Nadezhdin said he would appeal to the Supreme Court after the Central Election Commission (CEC) blocked his candidacy ahead of next month’s poll.