Paranoid Putin ‘sends body double to stage major Russian military crackdown’ on Red Square, Ukraine says as despot leader ‘fears for his life’
Ukraine claims Vladimir Putin will send a body double to hold a massive military parade in Red Square on Tuesday because of a “paranoid fear for his life.”
The extraordinary claim came from Kyiv government official Anton Gerashchenko.
“Putin will not dare to appear in the parade on May 9, but will send a double,” he said.
Rumors of Putin’s use of lookalikes – who have undergone plastic surgery to resemble Putin – predate the war against Ukraine, but have intensified in recent times, unlikely such a theory is.
He would be afraid of being killed because of the war against Ukraine.
Ukraine claims Vladimir Putin will send a body double on Tuesday to stage a massive military parade in Red Square over a ‘paranoid fear for his life’
The extraordinary claim came from Kyiv government official Anton Gerashchenko
“A drone attack on the Kremlin on May 3 has added to Putin’s fears,” said Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry and former deputy minister.
“Now the chance that he, and not a character playing his part, will be in the parade on May 9 is zero.
“True fear for his life will force Putin to sit in a bunker and send another doppelgänger [onto Red Square].’
Putin has a “paranoid fear for his life,” but the doubles show subtle differences from the real Putin due to “appearance inconsistencies,” he said.
And while the real Putin keeps 20 feet away from interlocutors, the lookalikes are sent to shake hands and meet large groups up close.
The Russian opposition Telegram channel General SVR repeated the Ukrainian claim.
It claimed that Putin will not make a “risky” appearance at the parade.
“The presence of a double is planned,” the channel said.
The goal is for Putin to be seen as a “hero” for hosting the massive parade days after the drone attack on the Kremlin – even though the real dictator is hiding in a bunker.
The channel also claims that Putin’s security agents staged the drone attack as a false flag.
And it says that the real Putin is sick with cancer and under the constant supervision of doctors, but nevertheless wrote the speech for the ‘understudy’.
Supposedly run by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant general known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich, the channel claims insider information.
Putin has been rarely seen in recent days.
Today, however, he briefly appeared in Kremlin footage to greet Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Zhaparov, one of the few foreign leaders flown in to attend the May 9 event.
Body doubles were used by former Kremlin leaders, for example longtime Soviet supremos Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev.
Putin confessed three years ago that officials had considered using doubles for him, but he claimed the idea was rejected.
“I rejected the idea of doubles,” he said.
He admitted that the proposal emerged in the early 2000s as Russia was hit by terrorist attacks.
It was suggested that a doppelganger take his place at events where the head of state could be in danger, he said.
“This was during the toughest time of our war on terror.”