Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in India on Thursday for a two-day visit. He will attend a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and take part in the 23rd India-Russia Summit on December 5.
His visit also brings into focus long-running speculations surrounding his health and past reports that he uses body doubles during certain public engagements. For years, he has been the subject of online conspiracy theories, with unverified claims suggesting he relies on lookalikes or stand-ins for security purposes or to conceal illness.
Does Putin Use A Body Double?
In 2022, Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, claimed that Putin employs at least three body doubles, who have undergone plastic surgery to resemble him. Budanov suggested the doubles might be used to hide Putin's possible loss of control in the Kremlin.
He said Ukraine is baffled by Russia's invasion strategy, questioning whether the real Putin is still making key decisions. “No matter how bad he was in the past, he was not an idiot,” Budanov noted, adding that Russia's war “does not follow any logic.”
Budanov explained at the time that the doubles have been seen at special occasions, but now it is considered routine. Differences in height, gestures, body language, and earlobes give them away.
Claims Of A Lookalike At Alaska Meeting
In August this year, similar speculation surged after the Alaska Summit between US President Donald Trump and Putin. Conspiracy theorists said that the Russian president did not actually attend the meeting in person, claiming instead he sent one of his body doubles to Alaska.
These claims were based on supposed differences in Putin's appearance and gait, with some insisting that the individual who stepped off the plane had fuller cheekbones and appeared more jovial than Putin himself. Ukrainian social media platforms also circulated these claims, despite previous Kremlin denials.
On-Air Denials And Deepfake Confusion
In 2023, during a marathon phone-in press conference broadcast on Russian television, a student from St. Petersburg asked Putin about his concerns regarding artificial intelligence and whether he used body doubles. The question appeared to be delivered through an AI-generated deepfake of the president. Putin denied using a body double and addressed the deepfake directly, calling it his “first twin.”
“You can talk like me and use my voice, my pitch, but I figured only one person can speak like myself and use my voice, and this is going to be me,” he said in the unusual exchange.
Earlier Claims Of Illness And Stand-Ins
Speculation about Putin's health has persisted for years. In 2022, Metro reported claims from the Telegram channel General SVR, allegedly run by a high-ranking Kremlin insider, that Putin had been compelled to use deepfakes and body doubles to appear at public events due to what the channel described as rapidly deteriorating health.
According to Metro, the channel has long alleged that Putin suffers from a range of illnesses, including dementia, several forms of cancer and Parkinson's disease. It claimed he cancelled multiple events after episodes of frequent bouts of dizziness and headaches, said to be linked to Parkinson's. According to the same source, his supposed cancer was progressing, allegedly affecting both his general condition and performance.
Kremlin Statements And Putin's Past Rejection Of Body Doubles
Putin has previously said he turned down proposals to use body doubles. In a 2020 interview, he stated that the idea was presented in the early 2000s during Russia's conflict with separatists in Chechnya, a period when he made several trips to the region. He told the BBC that he rejected the suggestion each time it was raised.
The Kremlin has consistently dismissed reports that Putin employs lookalikes. According to Reuters, in 2023, a Kremlin spokesperson rejected such claims entirely, saying, “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.”
