Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine has (so far) not been the success that Putin hoped it would be – with the Ukrainians putting up a stronger fight than expected while the rest of the world batters Russia with sanctions and condemnation.
So why did Putin think an invasion would be a good idea? Is he really that insane and power hungry? Or, as several outlets are suggesting, is the 69-year-old Russian dictator dying from a terminal disease – rumoured to be bowel cancer – which is wreaking havoc with his mental state?
Here’s The Daily Star’s headline this morning…
Yeah, I know – it’s the Daily Star. The Daily Telegraph also published a piece titled ‘Five reasons to suggest ‘puffy-faced’ Putin could be seriously ill‘ and The Sun asks ‘Is Vladimir Putin ill?‘. These rumours had to have come from somewhere though, right?
Well, the claim that Putin has cancer and that his condition prompted the invasion of Ukraine was actually made by a senior Royal Navy admiral. Speaking to children at Portsmouth Grammar School on March 4, former pupil and Falklands veteran Rear Admiral Chris Parry said:
He has been using these very long tables to interview people.
I think his immune system might be suppressed at the moment. So he is a man in a hurry.
An unnamed US intelligence source who works at the Pentagon holds a similar view:
In the past we have seen him smile, but in 2022 there are few pictures of him looking happy.
His look suggests he is in pain and our people suggest his angry look is most likely as a result of him being in agony.
Our people are confident he is ill – he is concerned about Covid as he keeps his staff at a distance.
Fiona Hill, a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, added:
Putin’s not looking so great, he’s been rather puffy-faced.
We know that he has complained about having back issues. Even if it’s not something worse than that, it could be that he’s taking high doses of steroids, or there may be something else. There seems to be an urgency for this that may be also driven by personal factors.
The Kremlin has yet to respond to the rumours, though they were quick to rubbish reports that Putin was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease previously. Obviously it’s not nice to wish cancer on anyone but maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Putin is secretly dying from the disease. The downside to that is that he’d feel like he has nothing to lose. Or worse – he’d be an evil narcissistic madman with nuclear capabilities who has nothing to lose.
Imagine you find out you have a terminal illness and your reaction is to cause chaos and death and destruction rather than to make peace with yourself and the world. Says a lot about the kind of evil we’re dealing with here. One thing’s for sure – whether these reports are true or not, Putin won’t be happy that this news is doing the rounds.
For a look at Putin’s ‘secret daughter’ who has been killing it on Instagram lately, click HERE.
