Putin Health Issue Suggested by Ex-Spy Chief

Russian President Vladimir Putin has something "wrong with him medically," the former head of Britain's MI6 intelligence service has suggested.

Speaking to British broadcaster LBC, Sir Richard Dearlove said while he did not have a "clear answer" about how sick Putin is, contacts in Eastern Europe have told him the Russia leader could have Parkinson's disease.

The Context

There have long been concerns and rumours about Putin's health. For instance, in October the Kremlin denied claims he had suffered a cardiac arrest, saying "everything was fine with him." Other rumours have suggested the Russian president has had cancer, and viral videos of the leader—including one of him seemingly struggling to walk—have led to speculation that he could have Parkinson's.

What We Know

Asked by LBC's Nick Ferrari about the state of Putin's physical and emotional health, Dearlove said: "I do not have a clear answer to that, but I have contacts and friends still in Eastern Europe who think that there is something fundamentally wrong with him medically, but I'm not a clinician."

When asked if Putin might have Parkinson's, a neurodegenerative condition that affects the brain and spinal cord, Dearlove continued: "Probably Parkinson's, which of course has different representations, different variations, different seriousness, but the man is paranoid and I think the murder of [Alexei] Navalny might suggest a certain paranoia. That is one of the symptoms."

Newsweek contacted Russian government representatives by email to comment on this story.

Navalny was a prominent Putin critic who died suddenly while out for a walk last week, the Russian prison service said.

In January Denis Kloss, head of department at Chukotka District Hospital in Russia's Far East, made an assessment of Putin's health, claiming it was "excellent."

"Cheerful voice, cheerful gait. How he represents thought: it is accessible, it is understandable. There are no other political leaders overseas even close," Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Kloss as saying.

Views

Not every expert believes Putin is ill. "I'm deeply skeptical that Putin has some health problems likely to lead to his imminent death or incapacitation," Professor Mark Galeotti, director of Mayak Intelligence—a consultancy firm based in London concentrating on Russia—told Newsweek last year. "There is a great deal of rumor, propaganda and wishful thinking in play."

What's Next?

Putin is on an election tour around Russia ahead of the country's 2024 presidential election, which is scheduled to be held on March 17. Under constitutional changes made prior to the war in Ukraine, Putin may remain in power until 2036.

Update 02/23/24, 10:58 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.