Since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine on February 24, 2022, there have been various reports about Vladimir Putin and his health.

The Russian president has been the focus of rumours pointing to possible illness, with cancer and Parkinson’s disease both named, even if nothing has been confirmed.

There have also been theories suggesting that Putin is using a body double because he can’t make public appearances and is keen to avoid assassination attempts, and a former KGB spy close to the president has claimed that this is indeed true.

This spy is called Sergei Zhirnov and he claims to have found images of alleged body doubles standing in for Putin.

In addition, he provided pieces of evidence with exact dates in which he claims that Putin – who he knows well since their time together in the KGB – used a body double.

The evidence that Vladimir Putin is using a body double

The first date that Zhirnov provided was February 21 of this year. The former spy claims that a “skinny” and “coughing” Putin was seen giving a speech that day, but that this wasn’t the same Putin who gave another speech the following day.

“He has a totally different shape of the eye sockets, a totally different head, different wrinkles and a different voice,” Zhirnov said.

More suggestions that Putin isn’t making public appearances

The ex-spy’s testimony is not the only one to suggest that Putin is using a double.

The Russian Telegram channel General SVR also agrees with this theory and pointed to an example from just last Tuesday, during Putin‘s visit to Mongolia.

“Vladimir Putin did not have the features of a conductor, but yesterday his double waved his arms so much that one might think he was trying to represent a fan,” SVR said.