Russian president, Vladimir Putin suffered a late-night health scare over the weekend, according to a Telegram channel which claims to monitor the Russian leader’s health.
The 69-year-old suffered from ‘severe nausea’ overnight Friday into Saturday with doctors rushed to his bedside for around three hours, General SVR channel said.
Putin has now recovered, it claimed, but may be replaced by a body double during meetings this week or use ‘deep fake’ technology to stage television appearances.
It comes just days after Ukraine’s spy chief suggested that Putin had been replaced by a decoy during a state visit to Iran.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, raised suspicions after reviewing footage of the Russian leader getting off a plane in Tehran Tuesday.
‘Please look at the moment of Putin’s exit from the plane. Is it Putin at all?’ he said on Ukrainian television.
General SVR has previously claimed that Putin is being secretly treated for cancer and that top adviser Nikolai Patrushev regularly steps in for him during surgeries.
General SVR, which claims to be run by a former officer from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, said today: ‘Putin on the night of Friday July 22 to Saturday July 23 needed urgent medical care.
‘At about 1am, the medical workers on duty at [his] residence were summoned to the president. Putin complained of severe nausea.
‘Twenty minutes later, an additional team of doctors with the president’s attending physicians was called.
‘It is known that doctors provided assistance and were near Putin for three hours, and after the president’s condition improved, they left his chambers.’
It claimed a decision was made that in some events this week ‘he will be replaced by a double’.
Political scientist Valery Solovey, who has long claimed the Russian leader is ailing, said: ‘The Americans, the CIA particularly, have information on the real state of health of the Russian president.
‘They definitely know that he has serious troubles, including mental ones.’
He spoke despite CIA Director William Burns saying last week that Putin is ‘entirely too healthy’. The Kremlin routinely denies Putin is suffering health problems.
British MI6 director Richard Moore later added: ‘There is no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious illness.’