Vladimir Putin periodically disappears from the public eye, setting off rumors that he is suffering serious health problems.
Every few years or so, Vladimir Putin disappears from the public eye for an unexpectedly long stretch, setting off rumors about the Russian dictator suffering from serious health problems.
In 2012, Putin canceled or postponed five foreign trips and spent more than a month “largely confined to his private residence in Novo-Ogaryova outside Moscow,” an absence from the public eye that was attributed to back pain.
In 2014, the Kremlin angrily denied the rumor that Putin had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; since then, the rumor that Putin has cancer in one form or another has periodically recurred, with no solid evidence.
In 2015, Putin disappeared for eleven days; the Kremlin denied Putin had any health problems but offered no alternative explanation. In his first appearance after the absence, Putin offered what for him is a bit of humor: “It would be boring without gossip.”
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Russia in spring 2020, Putin’s public appearances were few and far between; in March of that year, Putin donned a hazmat suit and respirator during a visit to a Moscow hospital. In November 2020, the Kremlin offered a rare public denial of a British tabloid’s claim that he suffers from Parkinson’s Disease. A government spokesman insisted, “he is in excellent health.”
In September 2021, Covid-19 spread through Putin’s entourage, and the Russian dictator self-isolated. The following month Putin was heard coughing but insisted he had only caught a mundane cold.
Putin obviously wants to project an image of himself as the ideal of masculine health, with his bare-chested horseback riding, judo, hockey competitions, and so on. Putin and his regime eagerly share details of a spectacularly healthy daily routine — healthy food, lots of exercise, no smoking, and no alcohol outside of official receptions. And rumors about secret ailments befalling Russian leaders go back to the days of the czars.
But Putin is 69 years old and does seem a little puffier and paler than we’re used to him looking. Perhaps that’s just age and stress. But the average male life expectancy in Russia is . . . 68 years, and men approaching 70 usually encounter more health problems, and more serious ones, than men in their 50s and early 60s.
And insisting that the leader’s health is fine when it is not is something of an old Russian habit. In July 1982, Senator Arlen Specter traveled to Moscow and said he had heard from Soviet officials that General Secretary “Leonid Brezhnev’s health was good,” despite Brezhnev missing certain public events.
Four months later, Brezhnev died.