Putin seen visiting war headquarters despite rumours he is dead | World News

Vladimir Putin was seen visiting his war command headquarters for the second time in three weeks amid setbacks and body double rumours.

‌The Russian president flew to Rostov-on-Don amid reports Ukraine is moving equipment as well as troops across the Dnipro River to previously Russian-occupied territory.

‌And strikes in Chornomorske, western Crimea hit Russian barracks, targetinghigh speed landing boats, according to Ukrainian reports.

‌This follows a claim by Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksii Danilov that Kyiv is making ‘huge gains’ in destroying Russian military assets in occupied Crimea.

‌’Currently, we are having great success in the Crimea direction,’ he said.

Putin was seen in footage talking to his defence secretary Sergei Shoigu, and senior war commander General Valery Gerasimov.

Ukrainian military intelligence waded into speculation body doubles of Putin are being deployed by the Kremlin.

It has been rumoured the dictator has died and been replaced entirely by doppelgängers.

‌One video of Putin this week showed him with markedly swollen cheeks meeting China’s Vice Chairman of Beijing’s Central Military Council, Zhang Youxia, while separate footage the same day showed no such condition.

‌Asked about Putin’s possible body doubles, Andriy Yusov, of Ukrainian military intelligence, said: ‘It’s not just possible, he has doubles. This is a fact.’

But Ukraine had no proof of the widely-reported claims Putin died last month.

‌’As for the information from the anonymous Telegram channels [Putin] is dead, sadly we still cannot confirm this information,’ he said.

‌He used three doubles, said Yusov, spokesman for the GUR military intelligence agency.

‌’We understand that the number can vary but we can be sure about three,’ he said.

‌This meant the Russian regime was ‘not stable’ and that Putin was not some strong, influential, confident politician.

‌The Kremlin instead was portraying an image of ‘the Big Brother who is watching you but in reality, is not big and is not your brother – and may not be even him’.

‌’This also means that the Kremlin is scared. It shows their fear and understanding that their construction is a house of cards that stands on the image of Putin the dictator.

‌’If you take away the crutches in the form of Putin’s doubles, the construction would fall apart and show itself to be very unstable. It also shows Putin’s fear, his fear of communicating.

‌’It’s the continuation of the story with the long tables, where a lonely man looking like Putin sits far away from everyone else.’

‌He spoke amid a swirl of rumours in Russia over Putin’s top security aide making a speech sounding like an obituary in which he referred to the dictator entirely in the past tense.

‌Nikolai Patrushev – a former head of the FSB security service and seen as Moscow’s most sinister spymaster – was accused of speaking about Putin as if he was dead.

‌Most authorities dismiss as conspiracy theories claims from political analyst Professor Valery Solovey and Telegram channel General SVR that Putin died on 26 October and his corpse stashed in a freezer at his forest palace in Valdai, north of Moscow.

‌But opposition politician and former FSB colonel Gennady Gudkov, with more than 200,000 followers, said: ‘Patrushev, dressed in black, makes a speech about the great comrade Putin in the past tense: he was, he became, he led, he inspired…

‌’Has the memorial service begun?’

‌Vasilyevich is seen as the patronymic of one of Putin’s alleged doubles.

‌On Thursday, Putin on a rare foreign trip repeatedly stumbled over the name of the presdient of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev – prompting more speculation about the dictator.

‌A Japanese study using hi-tech AI science suggested there are several Putins, assumed to be actors who have undergone plastic surgery and training by his ex-KGB secret service.

‌Putin’s spokesman has been forced into a succession of denials that the Kremlin uses a body double for a sick or missing president.

‌Solovey – formerly a professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training academy for spies and diplomats – insists Putin passed away.

‌He has claimed for years that Putin had cancer and was ailing.

‌’He died in the evening around 8:40 pm on Thursday, October 26th,’ he said, claiming inside knowledge.

‌’Now he is in the refrigerator compartment of his residence in Valdai.

‌’Humiliating, isn’t it? Well, probably deservedly so. There is no doubt about his physical death. Absolutely none, not the slightest.’

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