There are rumours Alexander Lukashenko may have been poisoned during a parade he attended with crony Vladimir Putin and his heightened security team.
The President of Belarus, 68, who's gripped on to power for almost a quarter of a century, was seen looking gravely ill as his pal Putin gave a speech to commemorate Victory Day, Russia's largest secular holiday to remember the country's efforts during WWII.
Belarusian political analyst Dmitry Bolkunets said that it is possible that the strongman was poisoned, but that in "recent days the autocrat has appeared sick several times", a Kyiv Post journalist wrote on Twitter.
One such sighting was in Red Square yesterday when he was unable to walk more than a quarter of a mile beside Putin.
While sitting in the crowd during Putin's speech, Lukashenko's right hand was covered with a bandage that could be seen poking out of his coat.
A video captured the moment he begged Putin and then a Russian security operative to provide him with transport to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden, alongside the Kremlin wall, to lay a wreath with the Kremlin ruler and other ex-Soviet republic leaders.
Putin evidently ordered flunkies to arrange a buggy to move stricken autocrat Lukashenko, 68, who has been in power for 24 years.
Putin and other leaders waited for Lukashenko before proceeding to the tomb.
The Belarus despot then appeared to walk awkwardly in Alexander Garden alongside a healthy-looking Putin, 70, and could not stoop down with fellow leaders to put flowers on the memorial.
After this, he reportedly rushed to the airport (accompanied by an ambulance) and flew back to his capital city, Minsk, skipping a post-parade “informal breakfast” hosted by Putin.
Lukashenko is Putin's closest ally and has allowed the Russians to mount military attacks on Ukraine from his landlocked state.
He had reportedly begged Putin not to come to Moscow for the parade for “medical reasons”.
But the Russian leader, who props up the basket case economy in Belarus, was insistent, seeking to show he was not entirely isolated over his disastrous war in Ukraine.
Overweight Lukashenko - who remains in power due to vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election and crushing the legitimate opposition, jailing its leaders - is believed to suffer from an acute knee problem and a serious back complaint.
“He needs urgent knee surgery,” Belarus opposition politician Pavel Latushko told NV Radio earlier.
Sources in the president’s medical clinic say he also has a spine problem which is causing him to “live on painkillers”.
When he met Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu he reclined on a sofa “so puffed up, all bloated”.
“This operation on the spine is almost impossible to perform in Belarus,” according to Latushko.
“It is also difficult in Russia.
“It is most likely to be held in the West….
“Both in Belarus and in Russia, the risks of immobilisation are simply much higher.
“He can get into a situation where he will be partially paralysed.”
Lukashenko - a Soviet era collective farm manager - is sanctioned by the West for his assistance to Putin in the war, and his use of his KGB secret police to crush all democratic opposition.
The leaders of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan were all able to walk the short distance with Putin from Red Square to Alexander Garden.
