Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email
Thank you for subscribing!
Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email
We have more newsletters
The Kremlin has been forced to deny that Russian President Vladimir Putin is dead – but the source of the claims has doubled-down this morning (Friday, October 27).
News broke overnight that Putin had succumbed to the myriad of apparent health issues he has allegedly been suffering for nearly two years, with a heart attack earlier this week proving the final nail in the coffin. The source of the claims is a Telegram channel called General SVR, which is thought to be led by a Kremlin insider, and it said that Putin had died at his Valdai residence, and that a “coup” was underway to replace the 71-year-old.
This forced the Kremlin to deny it for the second time in 48 hours, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling state media RIA Novosti that the report was an “absurd information canard”. However, rather than the Telegram channel backing down, it has actually gone into even more detail this morning – including claiming that doctors were “blocked in” with the corpse.
READ MORE: Putin's docs claim 'miracle won't happen' and are 'prepping loved ones for the worst'
For the latest news on Vladimir Putin's health, click here.
It said: “After informing the security officers on duty at the door about what had happened, by personal order of Dmitry Kochnev (the Director of the Federal Protective Service of Russia), the room in the presidential residence in Valdai, which was converted into an intensive care ward in which Putin died, was blocked. The doctors remained locked with the President's corpse.
“Security officers ordered the doctors to calm down, not make noise and wait. Dmitry Kochnev carries out the instructions of the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev – also, by order of Kochnev, the security of the President’s double was strengthened.”
-
Putin's body double 'running the country' as real Vlad 'too ill to take charge'
The channel goes on to claim that the alleged death gives his team a huge problem as the use of a body double could now be seen as a “coup d'etat”.
They also admit that there were plans to put an alive Putin into a “medically induced coma”, keep using the body double and then roll out a “freshly deceased” Putin as and when the leadership race had been decided and an official “Putin is dead” announcement could be made. Just 24 hours before Peskov's most recent denial, he said: “This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity – this evokes nothing but a smile.”
The one person who hasn't come out and spoken about it is Vladimir Putin himself . . . make of that what you will.
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
- Vladimir Putin
- Russia
- Telegram
Source: Read Full Article