A Russian intelligence source appeared to confirm in messages seen by The Sun what had long been rumored about the 70-year-old strongman. “I can confirm that he has been diagnosed with an early stage of Parkinson’s disease, but it is already progressing,” the security source was quoted as saying. “This fact will be denied in every possible way and covered up,” the source said, according to the Sun. “Putin is routinely pumped full of all kinds of heavy-duty steroids and innovative painkiller injections to stop the spread of his recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer,” the person said. “Not only does it cause a lot of pain, but Putin has a facial swelling condition and other side effects – including memory lapses,” the source continued. “In his inner circle, there are rumors that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer,” he added. Rumors about Putin’s alleged ill health have been circulating for months, with several unconfirmed reports saying the president is battling cancer. The Kremlin has always denied that Putin, who likes to project an image of strength, suffers from any ailments. Rumors about Vladimir Putin’s alleged ill health have been circulating for months. Getty Images The bombshell report comes after Putin was recently caught on video with IV marks on the back of his hand as he held a soldier’s hand while visiting a boot camp in the Ryazan region. Kyiv Post reporter Jason Jay Smart tweeted screenshots of the video, with the mysterious blemish clearly visible on the Kremlin leader’s hand. Click on the right side of the screen below to watch this web story: Smart wrote that the Kremlin released two versions of the video of Putin’s trip: one with several watermarks obscuring the view of the hand, and another without the image of the hand. Another theory, put forward by former Ukraine correspondent Tom Warner, suggested that what appears to be an IV mark could be “just a weird angle of swelling [sic] veins.” A mystery mark is seen on Vladimir Putin’s right hand, circled in red, during his trip to a training ground in Russia’s Ryazan region. Rumors about Putin’s alleged ill health have swirled for months, fueled largely by unsubstantiated reports from the Telegram channel General SVR, which claimed he was suffering from cancer, Parkinson’s and schizoaffective disorder. Russian independent network Proekt claimed that Putin is always accompanied by medical staff, including top oncologists, whenever he visits officials. After Putin canceled a trip to Kazakhstan in July, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made a rare statement about the leader’s health, telling reporters that “everything is fine with his health.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s body language “reinforces an unhealthy appearance”, an expert has said. Putin and his allies have repeatedly said recently that Russia could use nuclear weapons to protect its territorial integrity — remarks interpreted in the West as tacit threats to use them to defend the four regions of Ukraine that Russia claims to have attached. Game theorist Georgy Egorov has warned that a nuclear attack “makes sense” for Putin if he only has a few months to live, The Sun reported. “It makes sense to use nuclear weapons on Putin only in one case – if the rumors about his health problems are true – if he has a few months left to live – he does not want to go down in history as a loser,” Egorov. he told Novaya Gazeta. Putin told a conference of international foreign policy experts that it was not necessary for Russia to strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons.
