The Kremlin’s spokesperson tried once again on Saturday to dispel the insistent rumours regarding Vladimir Putin’s reported use of body doubles.
Upon delivering a speech at a new national exhibition in Russia, Dmitry Peskov appeared keen to stress there is only one Russian president around.
He said: “We have only one Putin!” Making fun of reports and speculation on the topic, Mr Peskov added: “Now the ‘experts’ are guessing – there are three or four of them and who we now see every day.
“This morning they laid [flowers] at the [monument] of Minin and Pozharsky – this is the third or fourth ‘double’, it’s not clear.”
This isn’t the first time Mr Peskov has tried to quash similar rumours.
Last month, the spokesman branded as an “absurd hoax” the suggestion Putin was using body doubles.
A few days later, Mr Peskov had to step out once again to try and put an end to damaging rumours regarding Putin’s leadership after a Telegram channel called General SVR had claimed without providing evidence that the 71-year-old president had died and a body double would continue to lead the country for the time being.
Mr Peskov said of this unsourced report: “These [kinds of stories] belong to the category of fake news, discussed with enviable tenacity by a number of media outlets. This brings nothing but a smile [in the Kremlin]”.
The issue of Putin using body doubles due to health issues had been tackled by the Kremlin also in April, when Mr Peskov said: “You have probably heard that [Putin] has very many doubles who work instead of him while he sits in a bunker.”
After calling this “another lie”, the spokesman added: “As a matter of fact, he has always been and is mega-active. We can hardly keep up with him – those who work with him. His energy is enviable and one can only wish to be as healthy as he is.”
In 2020, Putin himself claimed to have rejected an offer to use body doubles for personal protection during the Chechen war.
Speculation regarding Putin sending lookalikes to carry out certain engagements spiked in June.
During a visit to the Dagestan region, the president – who has rarely been seen physically engaging with everyday Russians and has been particularly careful with coming into contact with people following the coronavirus pandemic – was photographed kissing an adoring girl on the head and posing for various selfies.
In another moment caught on camera during the same trip, he was also seen shaking hands and adjusting the uniform of an officer, despite never being spotted greeting his security team over the course of his two decades in power.
A picture of the president with Chechen republic head Ramzan Kadyrov also fuelled doubts, shared even by Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs advisor Anton Gerashchenko, as Putin appeared smaller and older than in other snaps.
