Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, looked to have a limp today as he attended Russia’s significant Vostok war drills, casting further doubt on his health.
The 69-year-old Russian president watched the significant military drills from a command post alongside Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, who Putin has’sidelined’ as a result of Russia’s significant defeats in Ukraine.
Putin seemed to be limping as he crossed the room to witness the war exercises when he arrived at the command post at the Sergeyevsky training range in Russia’s Far East.
Putin can be seen in the video moving awkwardly across the room and pausing before stooping to reach a row of seats.
This occurs only one day after young Russians saw Putin’s quivering legs as he gave a meandering speech.
In Russia, concerns about Putin’s health have been rife for some time. Some think he has Parkinson’s disease or cancer, and he often vanishes for days at a time amid rumours that he is having surgery.
As a result of the rumours’ popularity, the Kremlin was compelled to publicly refute them. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, said that the Russian president was in “great health” and that any rumours to the contrary were “total rubbish.”
But since he began his brutal invasion of Ukraine, rumours have intensified since the leader often gives the impression that he is not fully in control of his limbs.
He was recently seen limping off a plane in Iran and twisted his foot during a meeting with Belarus ruler Lukashenko.
Putin was also seen chatting to kids this week as he was tightly holding an armrest and wiggling his legs maniacally.
Parkinson’s disease, from which Hitler is said to have suffered at the conclusion of the Second World War, has shaking as one of its primary symptoms.
On Tuesday, he was seen stepping down to sit on a chair while hobbling across the room and seemed uncomfortable.
What is Putin doing wrong?
Since Vladimir Putin began his bloody invasion of Ukraine, rumours that he has health issues have been circulating for years and have become worse.
According to critics and Kremlin sources, the leader has Parkinson’s disease or cancer, which is confirmed by video that shows him trembling violently and grabbing a table for support.
Additionally, he has often vanished from view for weeks on end, leading to speculation that he is getting surgery.
Putin’s health issues were originally alluded to by Valery Solovey, a professor at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs, who said that Putin underwent cancer surgery in 2020.
Another anonymous source said that Putin’s abdomen was the target of the procedure.
One is of a psycho-neurological type, and the other is a cancer-related issue, he stated.
I’m not a doctor, and I have no ethical need to disclose these issues if somebody is interested in the precise diagnosis.
The second diagnosis is far more harmful than the first since Parkinson’s disease only affects how much one can appear in public.
People will be able to determine his life outlook based on this information, without even the need for specialised medical training, according to the statement.
Putin’s health is in perfect condition, according to the Kremlin, which has continuously disputed this.
His “gunslinger’s gait,” which is defined as a right arm swing that is noticeably smaller than a left arm swing and gives him a swagger, has been previously remarked by others.
According to the British Medical Journal, one of the hallmarks of Parkinson’s is an asymmetrically diminished arm swing, which may appear in “clinically intact people with a tendency to subsequently acquire” the condition.
Putin was seen in February forcefully grasping the edge of his chair as he shook his hand.
He is shown introducing fellow strongman Alexander Lukashenko in the Kremlin in the video, which was recorded on February 18—the day before his invasion of Ukraine began.
He tries to calm the shaking by pulling his shaky hand inside his body, but as he unsteadily approaches Lukashenko, he almost trips.
Later, when Putin sits in a chair, he grabs the arm for support and fidgets and taps his foot incessantly, unable to stay still.
The rumours were stoked by Putin’s awkward posture and his visibly swollen cheeks and neck during a meeting with the defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
Video captured Putin chatting to Shoigu while tapping his foot repeatedly and tightly holding the edge of the table with his right hand.
The claims have now been supported by his appearances hobbling and trembling his hands and legs.
Putin was seen watching the 2022 Vostok Games via a pair of binoculars while seated next to Shoigu and the military’s top general, Valery Gerasimov.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than six months ago, tensions between Shoigu and Putin have become worse, according to British intelligence officers who claim that the Russian president has “sidelined” the defence minister.
The seasoned politician who has held the defence job for 10 years, according to the British Ministry of Defence, is no longer the leader’s confidant and ally.
These tensions between the two were evident today as both Shoigu and Putin sat intently as they observed the military drills.
They were only seen laughing and smiling once while inspecting the military practise throughout the meeting.
Although it was unclear whether soldiers from China or India were participating in the phase of the Vostok war games that Putin was watching, the war exercises also include troops from other nations.
Putin seemed to be indicating that Russia’s military can carry on as usual despite the demands of the Ukraine war, where his forces have suffered significant losses in men and equipment while being fought to a virtual standstill after occupying about a fifth of the country, by continuing with the four-yearly Vostok exercises.
Moscow has stated that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia won’t have any impact on its ability to hold the military drill.
However, the 50,000 Russian soldiers reportedly participating in the Vostok 2022 war exercises represent a small portion of the 300,000 that trained with Chinese and Mongolian forces four years ago. Both numbers, according to Western military experts, are inflated.
140 military aircraft, 60 warships, and more than 5,000 pieces of military equipment will be deployed, according to Russia’s defence ministry. This is a significant decrease from the 1,000 aircraft and 36,000 tanks and armoured vehicles that were sent into the 2018 drills.
The narrower scope of this year’s Vostok war exercises is a reflection of the significant casualties that Russian artillery and soldiers have sustained in Ukraine during the last six months of the invasion.
The whole ground forces potential is occupied by actions in Ukraine, therefore this will be the lowest strategic-level exercise in years. Therefore, the exercise will need to be quite tiny,’ said Konrad Muzyka, head of the Polish-based Rochan military consultant.
The Russian Pacific Fleet was practising the firing of Kalibr cruise missiles, which the defence ministry said had successfully hit a target more than 185 miles distant, in a video that was posted on Tuesday.
On Monday, battle ships from China and Russia practised employing air defence artillery systems to fend off an enemy air assault.
According to the ministry, warships from the two nations performed anti-ship, anti-air, and anti-submarine defence operations in the Sea of Japan last week.
In February, Putin and Xi Jinping, the president of China, vowed to work together even more closely to counter the West.
140 military aircraft, 60 warships, and more than 5,000 pieces of military equipment will be deployed, according to Russia’s defence ministry.
This is a significant decrease from the 1,000 aircraft and 36,000 tanks and armoured vehicles that were sent into the 2018 drills.
The narrower scope of this year’s Vostok war exercises is a reflection of the significant casualties that Russian artillery and soldiers have sustained in Ukraine during the last six months of the invasion.
The whole ground forces potential is occupied by actions in Ukraine, therefore this will be the lowest strategic-level exercise in years. Therefore, the exercise will need to be quite tiny,’ said Konrad Muzyka, head of the Polish-based Rochan military consultant.
The Russian Pacific Fleet was practising the firing of Kalibr cruise missiles, which the defence ministry said had successfully hit a target more than 185 miles distant, in a video that was posted on Tuesday.
On Monday, battle ships from China and Russia practised employing air defence artillery systems to fend off an enemy air assault.
According to the ministry, warships from the two nations performed anti-ship, anti-air, and anti-submarine defence operations in the Sea of Japan last week.
In February, Putin and Xi Jinping, the president of China, vowed to work together even more closely to counter the West.
An army detachment from India has travelled to the exercises, where it is reportedly participating in “combined field training exercises, combat debates, and firepower exercises.”
India, which receives the majority of its military hardware from Russia, carried out the drill days after the United States expressed worry about any nation engaging in such manoeuvres with Russia at the moment.
According to Moscow, the war exercises also include military participants and observers from six former Soviet republics as well as Algeria, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, and Syria.
Today, in Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres away, after starting a counteroffensive last week, Kiev’s soldiers are still forcing Russia back.
The Ukrainian army destroyed Russia’s logistical hubs in the southern Kherson area, which had been controlled by Russian forces since the beginning of the conflict. Overnight, two checkpoints, a command centre, and a pontoon bridge were all attacked.
Ukraine has finally started its long-awaited counterattack, its largest since it pushed Russian soldiers from the environs of Kyiv in March, after months of facing severe Russian artillery strikes in the east.
In order to maintain tactical surprise, Ukraine had kept the majority of the specifics of its new operation a secret, barred journalists from the frontlines, and provided few public commentary. Russia claims to have stopped attacks in Kherson.
A Moscow-installed official in Kherson was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying that plans for a referendum to annex the region to Russia had been postponed due to the security situation.
This was a rare admission from the Russian side that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was delaying Moscow’s plans for territory it had seized.
The goal of Kyiv, according to Mark Hertling, a retired military commander of American ground forces in Europe, is to trap thousands of Russian soldiers on the east side of the massive Dnipro River by destroying bridges that they now use for supplies and would need to escape from.
Hertling tweeted that Ukraine was attacking a Russian unit with “precise weaponry, confounding an RU force that already has extremely low morale and weak leadership” because Russia had placed them in Kherson with “a river at their back and restricted supply lines.”
The biggest nuclear power station in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia plant, was again cut off from Ukraine’s energy grid on Tuesday, which left it in the perilous situation of having to depend on its own power to operate safety systems. As a result, worries for the plant’s safety increased.
Fighting surrounding the Zaporizhzhia facility has placed it in a precarious scenario that might result in a nuclear disaster, despite repeated warnings from international leaders to this effect.
Hours after the Ukrainians said Kremlin troops assaulted a city across the river, Russian-installed authorities claimed Ukrainian forces shelled the city where the facility is situated on Tuesday.