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Is Putin SICK? Famously fit Russian president looks ‘bloated’ and pale in recent meeting

'It could be that he’s taking high doses of steroids, or there may be something else,' Russia expert Fiona Hill explained

Vladimir Putin is reportedly not in good shape as a recent photo of him showed him looking “ashen and bloated” as he held a meeting with the governor of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Beglov. The image released by the Kremlin came amid mounting criticism of the Russian president across much of the world over the attack on Ukraine.

In the photo, the Russian president is seen sitting opposite Beglov while looking pale and unfit. A Twitter user wrote, “The Kremlin just posted this pic. Putin does not look well… he’s ashen and bloated.” Another user said, “He was sitting very close to Mr Beglov, despite the fact that in recent months he has been pictured keeping his distance from aides and other world leaders due to alleged fears about catching coronavirus.” “Hitler didn't look that great, either, in the last days. But #Putler is still alive, that is the problem,” the third user added.

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A person speculated, “I thought he looked bloated too. High dose steroids for something sinister perhaps?” The second one said, “I feel death is coming for him Putin.” A tweet read, “You won't see him topless on a horse now. The horse are all defecting to Ukraine rather than carry Old Fatty.” “Putin’s put himself in an untenable position; once he decided to act on his grisly ,primal urges & invade Ukraine, he must go forward & face the wrath of western civilization or retreat in humiliating defeat.I’m not sure he has any rational logic left; it’s an ominous situation,” another tweet stated.

Fiona Hill, who served as an official at the US National Security Council specializing in Russian and European affairs, also commented on Putin’s appearance and said: “Putin’s not looking so great, he’s been rather puffy-faced. We know that he has complained about having back issues. Even if it’s not something worse than that, it could be that he’s taking high doses of steroids, or there may be something else.”

She further explained: “He may have a sense that time is marching on – it’s 22 years, after all, and the likelihood after that kind of time of a Russian leader leaving voluntarily or through elections is pretty slim. Most leaders leave either like Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko thought that he might leave, as the result of massive protests, or they die in office. The only other person who has been Russian leader in modern times longer than Putin is Stalin, and Stalin died in office.”

The latest photo of Putin came before he was condemned for reportedly bombing the main television and radio tower in Kyiv and the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center – a memorial to the site where Nazis killed around 34,000 Jews during World War II. Criticizing Russia for the attack that reportedly killed five and calling it “the biggest instigator and initiator of war in the 21st century”, the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center said: “We see Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the killing of civilians and unprotected children, the rocket attacks on towns and villages, and the total destruction of infrastructure and housing as a crime against humanity. 

“As experts who work with the Holocaust research and commemoration, we are deeply outraged that the aggressor country has used genocidal rhetoric to justify its shameful actions. Russia has vulgarly instrumentalized anti-Nazi rhetoric and is trying to take on the role of a fighter against Nazism,” it added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took to Twitter to slam the bombardings as he wrote: “To the world: what is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…”