VLADIMIR Putin does use body doubles, a Japanese AI analysis has claimed.
Research based on facial recognition, voice comparison, and body movements indicates there are several different Vlads.
It is even suggested that he may have been deploying doppelgangers for many years that have been ageing with the 71-year-old president.
The AI breakthrough comes just after the Kremlin dictator completed his high-profile trip to China, seeking to lead an alliance against the West.
Claims of Putin using stand-ins or body doubles are not new and have been previously denied by the Kremlin.
But a report for major Japanese TV network TBS understands that at least two Putin doubles have been seen at different events.
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The network claims the real Putin hosted this year’s annual Red Square Victory Day parade on May 9.
But sophisticated facial recognition technology found that the Putin who inspected the Crimean Bridge ten months ago was only a 53 per cent match with the Putin on Red Square.
“Experts on face recognition would refer to this as ‘not matching’ in most cases, which leads us to the assumption this can be a double,” said the commentary.
One more Vlad appearance – at the war front in occupied Mariupol in March – shows only a 40 per cent facial recognition likeness with the Putin seen on Red Square, says the analysis.
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Another stunning finding is that there is only an 18 per cent facial recognition likeness between the Putin on the Crimean Bridge and the Putin in Mariupol.
“AI facial recognition experts’ analysis is clearly displaying the high probability of at least two body doubles,” concluded the report.
The broadcast also conducted voice analysis at Japan’s Institute of Audio Communication Laboratory, which works closely with police on criminal investigations.
This analysis for voice biometrics concentrated on the word ‘spasibo’ – or ‘thank you’ – uttered by Vlad on different occasions.
The Putin who addressed the Eurasian Economic Union Forum held in May – assumed to be the real dictator – was found to be different to three other Putin appearances.
The TV analysis concluded that the president's voice was different at the forum to other Putin examples at different appearances.
“Other than the difference in pronouncing the sound ’s’, there is a remarkable gap in pronouncing ‘pa’ and ‘si consecutively,” said the narrator.
Graphs were shown of the voice analysis highlighting the differences in emphasis.
Expert Mutsutoshi Muraoka said: “There is a difference in the recording conditions, as well as the utterance as it is, but still it is extremely rare to have such strong differences.
“We have to say at this point that the possibility of these two voices belonging to different people is high.”
While the voices are superficially similar, the analysis graphs show them to be starkly different.
This suggests that a double was used at the military support concert in February and the Mariupol visit in March, when the same doppelganger was deployed.
This indicates that a double is used even in front of thousands of people – as at the concert.
The programme suggested this was “risky” – making him vulnerable to being spotted as a fake.
Yet the programme suggested a double may have been used due to the risk of assassination associated with the war in Ukraine.
“Putin was speaking a few short sentences, the stadium being huge and him standing on the stage seen from afar saying a few greetings," said Akiyoshi Komaki from Asahi newspaper.
“It was rather easy to use a body double if so.
“What surprised me more was his appearance at the helicopter plant and talking there for 30 some minutes."
And the same double appeared was used at the helicopter plant in Siberia in March.
“The body double did the 30 minute speech there alone, truly remarkable of him being outstanding person for a double,” viewers of TBS NEWS DIG were told.
At the time there was speculation that another Putin double was seen waving his hands around and repeatedly touching his nose – traits not especially common with the dictator.
A former KGB spy colleague Sergei Zhirnov said at the time that he believed this was a doppelganger not scared to get close to people in the way Putin had been.
Body movement analysis using the latest AI techniques also leads to the conclusion that Putin uses doubles, the Japanese analysis suggested.
Analysis was made of previous Putin meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his talks with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko – when there was a 94 per cent match of these being the same Vlad.
"We see Putin himself walking with Xi Jinping, and him walking during the Naval Parade in St.Petersburg in July last year.
“We used the newest AI to compare two walking videos, and it matched at 86 per cent," analysts said.
The walking is “similar” but Asilla company executive Masahiro Wakasa said: “There is a possibility of a body double.
The comparison “couldn’t reach the perfect matching and go above 90 per cent, and you cannot imitate something easily to go over 90 per cent.”
The narrator said: “The Putin who appeared at the Main Naval Parade had 86 per cent matching.
“It surely looks high enough, but for the AI system being used, these numbers show the possibility of a different person.”
And at Mariupol, the Putin walk only showed a 75 per cent match compared to the walk with Xi, indicating this was not the same person.
“The judgement was made by looking at the body posture during the walking,” said Masahiro Wakasa in the broadcast, originally shown to Japanese viewers in June.
The real Putin is seen as “falling forwards” as he walks while the gait of the double is to keep a more upright posture.
“If we compare the two videos with assumed body doubles, the matching percentage drops to 69 per cent, being low, indicating two different people."
The investigation concluded: “Summing up, there is a body double, and there is a high possibility of another separate body double.”
The Mariupol appearance led to stories at the time that this was a double.
Ukrainian sources argued that this was a fake Putin seen driving around the war-blitzed city.
Shinji Hyodo, research secretary for the National Institute for Defence Studies, said: “I personally found it interesting that a lot of people were saying that the person visiting Mariupol was not Putin himself.
“And here we see the scientific analysis proving the point.”
The programme queried why body doubles are now used extensively, leading to them being exposed.
One explanation could be that the real Putin is sick.
“I think that these body doubles haven’t started being doubles just recently," said foreign affairs expert Tsutsumi Shinsuke.
“Maybe they have started from the very time Putin came into power, and he was continuously using body doubles, guiding and teaching them from back then.”
The doubles can be spotted by AI yet they give impressive appearances speaking in detail exactly espousing Putin’s views.
Shinsuke said this could be “the possible result of the long process of training".
Dr Solovey this week claimed that the double undertook Putin’s visit to China this week, and that Xi Jinping was fully aware that he met a doppelganger.
“The fact is that the current President Vladimir Putin is living out the last days of his earthly life,” said Solovey.
“Not months, and not weeks, but precisely the last days [due to terminal illness].
“He is currently, like in previous months, being successfully replaced by his double…
“[The double] even goes to Beijing.
“And the Chinese side knows very well who they are dealing with.”
Solovey claimed that Putin’s leading security adviser and war hawk Nikolai Patrushev, 72, holds the “trump cards” as head of a “large coalition” in the race for the succession.
“However, this does not mean that the victory of Patrushev’s coalition is predetermined.”
One theory is that the double could remain in power even after Putin dies.
The Chinese went along with pantomime in the hope that the doppelganger’s role would facilitate the existing security elite around Putin securing the succession, it was claimed.
On Thursday, Ukrainian channels seized on an image of Putin speaking behind a flower bedecked lectern in Beijing.
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"It seems that Putin is emerging from his coffin," said Crimean Wind channel.
It was suggested the Chinese were showing they knew his days were numbered.
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