Russian President Vladimir Putin is “all too healthy” despite “many rumors” about his health, a top US intelligence official said.
“There are a lot of rumors about President Putin’s health and as far as we can tell he is completely too healthy,” CIA Director Bill Burns said when asked directly whether Putin is unhealthy or unstable.
Burns acknowledged that his public comments at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Wednesday were not “formal intelligence judgment.”
Putin has recently appeared in photos showing some apparent puffiness on the face that has led to speculation that he may be undergoing medical treatment for an unknown illness.
The Kremlin has previously denied rumors of ailments.
“I don’t think any sensible person can see in this person any signs of any disease or ailment. I leave this on the conscience of those who spread such rumours, despite the daily possibilities of making sure who is in this world.” looks like,” Minister Sergey Lavrov told French broadcaster TF1 in May.
Some background: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, US politicians and former diplomats openly speculated about Putin’s stability.
From using a huge table during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron after he refused a Russian Covid-19 test, to delivering a speech full of conspiracy theories to justify the invasion of Ukraine, some of Putin’s behavior borders on bizarre .
According to a DailyExpertNews report published in March, U.S. officials are also “warned of the possibility that Putin’s strategy may be to project instability, in an effort to get the U.S. and allies to give him what he wants.” will, for fear he might do worse.”
When asked in March whether there have been any noticeable changes in Putin’s behavior, psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Dekleva to DailyExpertNews: “Yes and no.”
Dekleva, who previously worked at the US embassy in Moscow and specializes in leadership analysis/political psychology profiling for national security purposes, said Putin’s behavior is a sign of frustration at the pace of the Russian invasion.
“I don’t think he’s erratic or changed, but he’s definitely in more of a hurry,” Dekleva said.
“The saddest thing here, the most tragic is that Putin has turned from a respected world leader when he first came to power to … he now looks more and more like Russia’s Slobodan Milosevic,” Dekleva added, while he compared Putin to the Serb. autocrat who died in The Hague in 2006 while awaiting trial for war crimes.
Uliana Pavlova, Sarah Diab and Zachary B. Wolf of DailyExpertNews contributed to this post.
