File photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been "given a maximum of three years to live" by doctors, a Russian intelligence source has reportedly told The Sunday Mirror, in what is the latest of unsubstantiated reports claiming that the leader is seriously ill.
Earlier too, several unconfirmed reports had surfaced suggesting that the Russian president is "seriously ill".
Prior to that, Ukrainian Major General Kyrylo Budanov told Sky News that the Russian leader was seriously ill with cancer and that a coup to remove him was underway in Russia. Around the same time, an oligarch with close ties to Putin was reportedly recorded saying that "Putin is very ill with blood cancer."
In the most recent report that has arisen, the source has claimed that Putin "has a severe form of rapidly progressing cancer" which is also causing him to lose his eyesight.
Other symptoms of the disease Putin is allegedly suffering from include headaches and uncontrollably shaking limbs.
The information has reportedly come from a secret message from the Russian spy to FSB defector Boris Karpichkov.
The speculation caused Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to deny that Putin was ill or dying.
"President Vladimir Putin appears in public every day," Lavrov told French television, reported The Guardian.
(With inputs from The Sunday Mirror and The Guardian.)
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