A former KGB spy who studied alongside Vladimir Putin has claimed that body doubles are being employed at key events.
This allegation follows the circulation of a video featuring an exceptionally animated Russian President at a helicopter plant in Siberia.
The footage captures him gesticulating fervently and repeatedly touching his nose, behaviours that are not typical of Putin.
Sergei Zhirnov, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s, has altered his position on the topic of Putin using body doubles.
Previously, Zhirnov had dismissed such assertions as "conspiracy theories"; however, he has changed his mind.
He compared a formal speech made by an isolated, “skinny” and coughing ex-spy Putin on February 21 with an appearance at a pro-war concert the next day in Moscow.
In this case, “a totally different Putin pops up” with “a wider face as if he bloated in 24 hours”, he told Ukrainian TV.
He added: "He has a totally different shape of eye orbits, a totally different head, absolutely different wrinkles - a different voice.”
Far from shunning people, possibly to avoid covid, he was “almost kissing and hugging everyone”, said Zhirnov who is now exiled in France, and was a classmate of Putin’s at KGB Red Flag Institute, a spy academy.
On yesterday’s appearance in Ulan-Ude, after a five-hour flight from Moscow, General SVR separately insisted it was a Putin double talking in front of a helicopter at Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant.
The appearance of the supposed Putin clone went wrong, alleged by the telegram channel, which regularly claims that he uses doppelgänger actors who have undergone elaborate plastic surgery to exactly resemble Putin.
Most experts dismiss such claims as absurd and far-fetched, though several noticed Putin’s unusually buoyant mood in Siberia, compared to recent public appearances in Moscow.
The man “resembling the president showed imprudence and gave vent to emotions unusual for Vladimir Putin,” said a post from the telegram channel.
“Facial expressions and overly emotional waving of the hands for almost half an hour betrayed a double.”
Putin did not usually wave around his hands like an orchestra conductor, said the channel.
“The makings of a conductor were not [previously] observed in Vladimir Putin, but yesterday his double waved his arms so much that one might think he was trying to portray a fan,” it added.
The “understudy” blundered in saying to journalists that only 12million Russians lived east of the Urals.
In fact, the figure is 25.5million, which the real Putin would know.
Previously a double had said he had served in the marines, which Putin has not said the channel.
The real Putin will be at an upcoming meeting with President Xi of China, expected next week, said the channel.
Body doubles were used by former Kremlin leaders, for example, longtime Soviet supremos Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev.
Putin three years ago admitted that officials had considered using doubles, but he claimed the idea was rejected.
"I discarded the idea of any doubles,” he said.
He admitted the idea came up in the early 2000s when Russia was hit by terrorist attacks.
It was suggested a lookalike should take his place at events where the head of state might be at risk, he said.
