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".
Former British spy, Christopher Steele, who ran the Russia desk at MI6 in London between 2006 and 2009 and worked there in the 1990s, had reportedly said that Putin is "seriously ill" and that it is an "element" of what is happening in Ukraine.
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.
Speculations around the Russian president's health come after public appearances in which he was said to have looked visibly weak.
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.
“You can watch him on screens, read and listen to his performances. I don’t think that sane people can see signs of some kind of illness or poor health.”Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov
(With inputs from The Sunday Mirror and The Guardian.)
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