Russian President Vladimir Putin's health has been the subject of debate for several months. Most recently, social media was rife with several reports claiming that the Kremlin leader had apparently suffered a cardiac arrest and was rushed to the hospital, sparking discussions about his well-being.
The source of the information is reportedly a Kremlin insider who runs a Telegram channel called 'General SWR'. According to reports, General SVR said that the 71-year-old Putin suffered a cardiac arrest in his presidential bedroom and was found lying on the floor with overturned food and drinks.
After hearing noises and the sound of Putin dropping down of the floor, his security detail rushed inside the room and found him with his eyes rolled back. Doctors reportedly performed resuscitation after determining he was in cardiac arrest. He was then moved to a secure medical facility and kept under intensive care.
Notably, there have been several rumours about Putin's health, including one where he is believed to be terminally ill with cancer for over a year. However, Putin has always reemerged and dispelled these rumours, causing many to believe these as deliberate attempts to create uncertainty.
Following this incident, another Telegram post by a 'Z-blogger' further piqued curiosity on Putin's health by saying, "God, don't you leave us. Pray to God you are alive and healthy." Anton Gerashchenko, the advisor to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, said, "What's going on?"
How did the Kremlin respond?
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed rumours of Putin suffering a cardiac arrest, affirming that he was fine and in good health, according to Sky News.
Peskov denied speculation that Vladimir Putin is ill and said rumours he uses a body double are an "absurd hoax". "Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake [story]," he said.
It was also rumoured earlier this year that Putin uses a body double that conducted all official meetings and events. However, the Russian President had denied using them in an interview in 2020.
"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 on the recent rumour.
What is Putin doing?
The rumour comes after Putin conducted a high-level meeting with his 'dear friend' Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, in Beijing, as concerns grow about possible conflicts with the West over the Ukraine conflict and China's rising threats against Taiwan.
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin discussed trade and the 10th anniversary of Xi’s trademark Belt and Road Initiative that has built highways, ports and power plants across Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.
The policy has left many states deep in debt to Chinese banks, and the attempt to pump new life into it comes at a time when China’s own economy has slowed considerably due to huge overinvestment in real estate.
China is a key customer of Russian oil and gas, providing Moscow with an economic lifeline in the face of punishing Western sanctions imposed over its campaign against Ukraine.
“We had a tete-a-tete conversation, indeed, as you can imagine, having a cup of tea. We spoke for about an hour and a half or maybe two hours, and we discussed some issues of particularly confidential nature in private,” Putin, who has rarely left Russia since invading Ukraine in February last year, said without disclosing the topics discussed with Xi.
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