Western intelligence officials, as well as the Kremlin, this week dismissed long-standing rumors that Vladimir V. Putin, the 69-year-old Russian president, is unwell.
Mr Putin coughed during a speech in Moscow on Wednesday, causing observers to worry about his health. His scheduled meeting that day with officials from South Ossetia was canceled, fueling speculation that he was ill. In June, when a video released by state media showed him holding a table tightly for a moment too long, many on social media were convinced his health was deteriorating.
“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 William J. Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday.
Richard Moore, the head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, said he agreed with the CIA director’s assessment: “There is no evidence that Putin is suffering from any serious illness.”
The Kremlin also denounced the rumors as “nothing but fakes” on Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told reporters that Mr Putin was in good health and accused “information specialists” from Ukraine, the United States and Britain for spreading rumors to the contrary.
Mr Putin’s health was the subject of suspicion even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Unconfirmed rumors over the years have seen the president — whose private life has been largely shrouded in secrecy — diagnosed with cancer, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and paranoia.
The war has also sparked rumors about the health of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Thursday, a Ukrainian radio station broadcast several statements alleging that Mr Zelensky, 44, was in intensive care and that Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, had assumed the presidency.
The radio station’s owners later revealed that the station had been hacked.
Mr Zelensky addressed the rumor in a video speech, calling it fake news spread by Russia. He said he spoke from his office and had never felt stronger.
“And, with all due respect to age, 44 is not 70,” said Mr. Zelensky. Mr Putin will turn 70 in October.
