A former British secret service official has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "very seriously ill."
Between 2006 through 2009, Christopher Steele, a veteran MI6 intelligence officer, supervised the agency's Russia department. "Certainly, from what we're hearing from Russian and other sources, Putin is gravely unwell," he told Sky News."It's unclear what this ailment is—whether it's incurable, terminal, or something else entirely. But I believe it is a factor."
Steele did not name his sources.
Steele is best known for the Steele Dossier, a research published in January 2017 alleging ties between Russia and now-former US President Donald Trump.
His assertion about Putin's health is the most recent rumor in a flurry of speculation about the Russian president. Putin is in "extremely severe psychological and physical state, and he is terribly sick," according to Ukrainian military officer Kyrylo Budanov. The general denied promoting propaganda.Putin's health has been questioned in part because of statements like these, but also because of video recordings that appear to show him unsteady or anxious.
During a meeting with Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, earlier this year, one viral video showed Putin aggressively grasping a table. Putin appeared "increasingly frail," according to Erik Bucy, a communications professor at Texas Tech University. In another video, Putin appears to stumble slightly before meeting Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in February.The films prompted conjecture that Putin may have Parkinson's disease, a movement illness that can produce tremors and rigidity. Experts in the field of neurology, on the other hand, told the German news site DW that they were suspicious.
Putin showed "no trace of Parkinsonism in my opinion," according to John Hardy, a neurogeneticist at the United Kingdom's Dementia Research Institute.
Caroline Rassell, the chief executive of Parkinson's UK, noted that the disease "can only be confirmed following inspection" and that conjecture is "unhelpful."
Putin is also said to have or have had cancer. From 2016 through 2019, a cadre of specialists, including a thyroid cancer surgeon, accompanied Putin on vacations to his Sochi estate, according to the independent Russian news outlet Proekt Media.
The story did not specifically specify that Putin had been diagnosed with cancer or any other sickness, though the Kremlin denied to the Moscow Times that Putin had undergone thyroid cancer surgery that month.
According to New Lines magazine, Putin suffers from "blood cancer."
[zombify_post]
0 Comments