Putin's Story About Childhood Memory of Mother Raises Eyebrows

Russian President Vladimir Putin's recounting of a favorite childhood memory involving his mother is causing some to scratch their heads.

During a public meeting with youth group "Movement of the First" in Pyatigorsk on Tuesday, Putin offered an account of a time when his mother dispensed discipline by putting him "in a corner." The story's paucity of key details prompted some to suggest that the Russian president's remarks required interpretation by a psychologist.

"It's, you know, kind of a private thing," Putin said with a wide smile during the meeting, according to a clip posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Ukrainian Interior Ministry advisor Anton Gerashchenko. "I'll tell you only the beginning of the story. My mom put me in a corner, I don't remember why."

"For some time she was walking around, looking at me so harshly, asking me, 'Are you going to apologize or not?'" he continued. "How that story ended, I'll tell you one-on-one. Well, I'll just skip part of it, it ended with her kissing me, getting me out of the corner, and that was it. That was the story."

A slightly shorter version of the clip shared by Russian state media outlet RT featured an almost identical translation while shedding no additional light on the context of the memory or what happened.

Putin was 3 or 4 years old when the purported incident took place, according to a report from Russian state media agency TASS.

"When asked about his kindest childhood memory, Putin shared this story (or whatever it is)," Gerashchenko wrote while sharing his version of the clip. "Any psychologists here? What could it mean?"

"A plotless, narrative-free tale of sin and redemption," @Tim_Kelly wrote in response to Gerashchenko's post.

"Where's the middle part of the story?" asked @funneme.

"I think the story is just made up..... That's why it's missing part of it..... There's nothing to actually divulge.... Because there's no real story," @kaminokenR wrote.

A representative for the Russian president told Newsweek via email that "Mr. Putin himself didn't want to add anything more."

Observers have repeatedly questioned the state of Putin's physical and mental health this year, in part due to the sometimes bizarre comments that the Russian president has given to the press.

During an October meeting at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Putin botched a common Russian phrase, contradicted himself and appeared to forget the name of a person he recently spoken about. His behavior prompted some social media users to claim that he had gone "crazy."

Memory lapses at a press conference in June sparked speculation that Putin was suffering from "dementia," while eyebrows were also raised after he requested that a Russian official "pass on [his] regards" to dead soldiers during a meeting in July.

Putin was raised by his mother Maria and father Vladimir in the relatively harsh environment of Soviet St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. At the time of his birth, in 1952, the city was still suffering the aftereffects of a brutal siege by Nazi forces in World War II.

Although some details of Putin's early childhood remain murky, the Russian president revealed in interviews conducted for his 2000 biography First Person that he grew in a "horrid" apartment that was infested with "hordes of rats" that he and his friends chased around "with sticks."

Update 12/8/23, 10:34 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin.