Photo: MIKHAIL TERESHCHENKO / AFP / Getty Images
The Vladimir Putin’s health has been questioned after a video showed him clutching a table during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Hunched over and with a ‘swollen’ face, Putin was seen in the video alongside Shoigu, where he claimed that Russia had ‘liberated’ the besieged city of Mariupol and ordered to stop the attack on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the city.
Images they show Putin talking to Shoigu grasping the edge of the table with his right hand and stamping his foot.
Shoigu was described as “muttering his words ” in the pictures and was reading notes, having suffered an apparent heart attack.
Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist and former adviser to Ukraine and Russia, said: “Today’s meeting of Putin with Shoigu shows that both are so depressed and apparently in poor health.
“Shoigu has to read his comments to Putin and mispronounces them, suggesting that the rumors of his heart attack are likely. He feels bad. Bad performance. It is worth seeing.”
Putin’s swollen face and neck have caused claims that he is receiving steroid treatment. Others speculated that he might be showing signs of Parkinson’s.
Pictures show thumb Putin’s right hand moving constantly as he listens to his defense minister, and it has been suggested that the fidgeting could indicate that he was trying to hide a tremor.
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and former NATO adviser Professor Gwythian Prins have claimed that Putin has shown signs of progressive nervous system disorder.
Last week, a Russian-Israeli businessman claimed that Shoigu suffered a heart attack. Leonid Nevzlin claimed that Shoigu had been in intensive care after suffering “a massive heart attack”.
At the joint appearance with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin declared: “Completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol it’s a hit”, and congratulated Shoigu.
Shoigu also seemed to be struggling in the clip, described as slurring words and reading notes.
Shoigu predicted that the Azovstal steelworks could be seized in three to four days. But Putin said that would be “useless” and expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops by deciding not to send them to clean up the sprawling plant, where staunch defenders were hiding in a maze of underground passageways.
Instead, he said the Russian leader, the military should “block this industrial area so that not even a fly gets through.”
The plant covers four square miles and is crossed by some 15 miles of tunnels and bunkers.
Russian officials have said for weeks that capturing the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas is the main objective of the war. Moscow forces opened the new phase of fighting this week along a 300 mile front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Sea of Azov.
While Russia continued heavy air and artillery strikes in those areas, it did not appear to gain significant ground in recent days, according to military analysts, who said Moscow forces are still stepping up the offensive.
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