VLADIMIR Putin has appeared “bloated” and “weak” in recent public appearances, according to body language experts, and his behaviour suggests he may be suffering from a serious physical disease.
Video from Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine in 2014 appears to show how Putin has devolved into a shell of his former self.
Putin’s increasingly unpredictable behaviour in the battle may reflect a man on the edge of a physical or mental breakdown.
Whether it’s riding a horse topless or riding a Harley-Davidson in full leather with an infamous biker gang, the 69-year-old has long prided himself on his “strong man” image.
Putin’s dramatically changing appearance in recent years has sparked speculation that he has had Botox or is hooked to steroids.
Putin’s face, however, is not the only component of the Russian president’s appearance that has changed in recent years, according to acknowledged body language experts.
Following Russia’s last invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Vladimir Putin was caught on camera requesting his Federal Council to sanction the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, which had previously been part of Ukraine.
He has a more energetic appearance, a slimmer face, a calmer voice, and a more relaxed body language.
However, film of Putin’s most recent public appearances, taken just eight years later, appears to show a drastically different man.
As body language expert Erik Bucy from Texas Tech University explained: “The contrast with the Vladimir Putin of five or 10 years ago – when he was much more energetic and erect – is stark.”
Joseph Tecce, an associate professor of psychology at Boston College, adds: “We will soon see Putin suffer a nervous or physical breakdown as his body takes a beating from the stress emanating from the discordance between his subjective reality and what will soon face him in the real world.”
Here are nine indicators that Putin’s physical and mental health is deteriorating.
SLOUCHING
In the recent two appearances of Vladimir Putin, Mr Bucy says: “He appears hunched over with a sagging posture. He appears uncomfortable, perhaps incapable of holding himself erect.
“He frequently looks down and to the side, addressing the table and the floor and only rarely looking up at his subordinate.”
BLOATED FACE
Bucy told The Sun Online: “This is an aged, bloated, physically weakened version who appears to have come out of a long bout of isolation and perhaps physical illness.
He also points to “visible signs of unease and discomfort” in his delivery.
ISOLATION
Putin’s unusually huge meeting table has been extensively criticised in recent public appearances.
Bucy notes, however, that the 13-foot table’s size, ostensibly for social separation during the pandemic, could indicate “unease with close contact, another sign of physical illness or frailty.”
He goes on: “The distance also suggests he does not want to enable direct social comparisons with his invited guests… who may be in better physical condition.
“His use of video conferencing to meet with advisors is another sign of isolation and fear of contamination.”
DIFFICULTY WALKING
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disease that primarily affects movement on one side of the body.
The symptoms appear gradually and usually begin with a minor tremor in the hand or fingers.
A nurse posted a viral TikTok video last month speculating on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health.
“Nurses and medical professionals, I’m gonna show you a video and this is why we should be terrified,” the user, who has the handle @musclesandnursing, said in the video.
He then switched to a film showing Vladimir Putin struggling to walk, tripping on his right leg slightly before approaching and shaking a man’s hand.
“I’m a nurse so I cannot diagnose, but I do know Parkinson’s and a stroke when I see it,” he went on, in the video which quickly racked up more than 2 million views.
Others have speculated that his peculiar walking stance, in which his right arm is frozen at his side while his left swings freely, is a relic of his KGB training.
Russian spies were taught to assume a “gunslinger” position, which required them to always have their trigger finger close to their weapon.
LOW ENERGY
Vladimir Putin today seems “laconic and low energy,” Bucy adds.
He contrasts his recent speeches “with his earlier, pre-pandemic appearances when he was far more energetic”.
INAPPROPRIATE SMILING
“Putin’s body language reveals an attempt to hold back negative feelings,” Mr Tecce adds.
He further criticises Putin’s “inappropriate behaviour” in the midst of the Ukraine conflict, claiming that he “started waving and smiled” at his interviewer instead of realising “the seriousness of the situation.”
Tecce explained: “Putin’s inappropriate behaviour of smiling at a serious time may indicate his lack of awareness between his feelings of antagonism toward Ukraine and the reality of behaviour that may have serious consequences for him.
“This type of dissociation has been characteristic of people on the edge of break-down who make impulsive decisions which are out of touch with reality and which later haunt them.”
LIP LICKING
“Frequent lip licking also indicates dehydration or stress,” Bucy says.
“It is a Putin who presents less confidence even as he displays more aggression towards adversaries and subordinates.”
IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Putin’s behaviour has recently been characterised by passionate, odd outbursts, such as branding Ukrainian officials as “Nazis” and “drug-takers,” or criticising his own people as “traitors,” despite his icy-cool demeanour.
Putin’s “unhinged televised ramblings,” according to Paul Taylor of Politico, have tarnished his reputation as a “cold-blooded statesman.”
Psychosis and behavioural changes are common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, according to parkinson.org in the United States.
Hallucinations or delusions are reported by 20 to 40% of persons with Parkinson’s disease.
EXCESSIVE BLINKING
Mr Tecce adds that President Putin’s increased blinking rate appears to reveal his stress levels.
In a recent video, he mentions a “heightened blink rate of 56” times per minute, compared to the average rate of 30 to 50 times per minute.
Vladimir Putin similarly looks down and averts his interviewer’s sight in the footage.
Vladimir Putin issued a terrifying threat to the West and billionaires, saying that “scum” traitors will be “spit out like a midge that flew into their mouths” by Russians.
The Russian president warned that the West will use “those who earn their money here but live over there” as a “fifth column” to “divide our society” in a televised address.
Despite his troops’ advance being largely blocked on the outskirts of Kyiv, Vladimir Putin declared that his “military operation” in Ukraine is going according to plan.
On Wednesday, Russian soldiers attacked a theatre in Mariupol that was being used as a bomb shelter by up to 1,200 people, possibly killing dozens of children in the latest possible example of Putin’s unpredictable decision-making.
According to local reports, Russian soldiers detonated a bomb on a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol where residents were sheltering.
According to Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov, between 1,000 and 1,200 people sought sanctuary in the structure.
Outside the structure, the word “children” was scrawled in huge characters on the sidewalk, pleading the Russian jets not to destroy it.
A report on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning showed that the shelter had been featured in a Ukrainian TV news report just 20 minutes before the strike, implying that the attack on the sheltering children was pre-planned.
The exact number of victims murdered in the attack is unknown at this time.
According to Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Sergei Orlov, 80 to 90% of the city’s buildings have been bombed.
The city, which had a population of 400,000 people before the war, is vitally important to Putin’s soldiers.
The port is located between Crimea’s occupied territory in the south and the pro-Russian separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east.
Its seizure could aid Russia in establishing a vital land route across Ukraine.
Several parents were regrettably forced to abandon their little preterm newborns at a Mariupol hospital yesterday.
A heartbreaking image from the city’s hospital number three shows three premature newborns in a bed, left behind by their desperate parents, amid hectic scenes as people try to flee.
It comes after a Russian airstrike damaged a maternity hospital in Mariupol, killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
The mother was stretchered out of the hospital and afterwards yelled “kill me, kill me” when she discovered her kid was missing – before dying herself.
According to reports, Russian troops have killed 103 children.
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