Video Of Vladimir Putin Slouching & Gripping Table Sparks Health Questions

Many viewers have questioned the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin after a video showing him in a strange posture and gripping a table with his right hand was shared online. The video showed Putin and Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu talking in the Kremlin. They were reportedly discussing Russia’s attack on the city of Mariupol which Putin called a “liberation.”

The full clip of the conversation released directly by the Kremlin lasts about 12 minutes and Putin doesn’t remove his hand from the table for most of it.

The Swedish Economist Anders Åslund wrote that both Putin and Shoigu looked “depressed & seemingly in bad health,” noting that Shoigu “slurs badly” in his parts of the video and suggested rumors of his heart attack are likely true given his “poor performance.” Shoigu was absent from the public eye for a couple of weeks last month and some thought it was due to health concerns.

British blogger and novelist Louise Mensch theorized that Putin has been suffering in secret from Parkinson’s disease, and claimed he was “gripping the table so that his shaking hand is not visible but he cannot stop his foot from tapping.” Her article also claimed access to information from anonymous “UK Intelligence sources” that allegedly have knowledge of the diagnosis.

Other observers noted that Putin’s face appeared bloated and he usually had on a rather pained expression during the whole video. Putin turns 70 this October, and he has long been the subject of rumors about his health. Another health theory, pushed by the Russian newspaper Proekt, is that Putin suffers from cancer and has a team of doctors that attend to him regularly including an oncology surgeon with a focus on thyroid cancer.