CIS

Home page

CIS

Kremlin says Putin is healthy, laughs off body double rumours

Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation

24 October 2023 14:19 (UTC +04:00)

The Kremlin on Tuesday denied a report that President Vladimir Putin was ill, and laughed off persistent rumours that he used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances, APA reports citing Reuters.

"Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.

The spokesman laughed in response to a further question about body doubles, and denied that Putin had any.

"This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile," Peskov said.

In a 2020 interview, Putin denied longstanding rumours that he uses body doubles, although he said he had been offered the chance to use one in the past for security reasons.