Documents Reflect Persistent, if Unfounded, Speculation on Putin’s Health

WASHINGTON — For greater than a yr, the notion that Vladimir V. Putin is critically unwell has been a topic of lurid hypothesis, web video forensics — and potential wartime propaganda, regardless that U.S. officers say there isn’t any proof the Russian chief is dying.

Now, a doc among the many trove of leaked categorised supplies gives the newest instance of the fascination with Mr. Putin’s well being. It describes a dialog between two Ukrainian officers about what one claimed was a conspiracy amongst Mr. Putin’s inside opponents to problem his rule at a second when he was mentioned to be present process chemotherapy.

No proof has emerged to substantiate the declare, or many earlier ones, and the leaked doc offers no indication that the United States finds it credible. In July, the director of the C.I.A. dismissed hypothesis about Mr. Putin’s well being, and lots of Russia consultants discover no purpose to doubt him.

Analysts known as the general public dialogue of Mr. Putin’s well-being unsurprising. It is a predictable byproduct of the aura of thriller round highly effective autocrats who hold their distance from observers and their private lives properly hid, mentioned John Sipher, a former C.I.A. official who ran the company’s Russia operations.

In latest years, North Korea’s chief, Kim Jong-un, has been the topic of seemingly unfounded claims that he was gravely unwell and even useless. Similar hypothesis has centered on President Xi Jinping of China, notably when he stopped touring overseas through the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’ve never put much stock in health talk,” Mr. Sipher mentioned. “We’ve heard the same stuff for years. I just think that it’s always a discussion point in closed societies where they hide and lie about everything.”

The declare about Mr. Putin is certainly one of many to emerge since he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February final yr. Some analysts recommended that his critics unfold disinformation to undermine his picture as a vigorous and menacing powerful man.

In an interview with ABC News in early January, Ukraine’s army intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, broadly endorsed the rumors. “He has been sick for a long time. I am sure he has cancer,” Mr. Budanov mentioned. “I think he will die very quickly. I hope very soon.”

Two weeks later, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, went even additional, questioning whether or not Mr. Putin was nonetheless alive.

The newest instance of hypothesis is in one of many paperwork that Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, whom federal brokers arrested this month, is accused of leaking. It asserts {that a} member of Ukraine’s parliament, Yelizaveta Bohutska, claimed to learn about a plan by Russian officers to undermine their very own army to “sabotage” Mr. Putin.

Ms. Bohutska mentioned the plan was to engineer a army setback by March 5, “when Putin was allegedly scheduled to start a round of chemotherapy and would thus be unable to influence the war effort,” the doc states.

Ms. Bohutska disclosed the plot on Feb. 17 to Andriy Yermak, the chief of employees to Mr. Zelensky, based on the doc. Ms. Bohutska, it added, had “received the information from an unidentified Russian source with access to Kremlin officials.” Neither Ukrainian official responded to requests for remark.

The doc didn’t point out how the United States knew in regards to the dialog, however the leaked reviews affirm suspicions that the Biden administration has been surveilling Ukraine’s authorities and different allies.

Subsequent occasions haven’t borne out the claims. While Mr. Putin made no public appearances on March 5, based on a Kremlin archive of his actions, that date fell on a Sunday, when he would often not be lively in public. And Mr. Putin had quite a few conferences the next week.

Nor is there proof that Russian forces skilled a shocking setback round that point.

Social media sleuths have lengthy seized upon movies of Mr. Putin’s public appearances, claiming to determine adjustments in his look, speech, gait, or posture as proof of faltering well being.

“Fiction and falsehood,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, mentioned final April when requested in regards to the most cancers rumors, based on a put up on Telegram by the veteran Russian journalist Alexei Venediktov.

That seems to be a uncommon level of settlement between Russian and American officers. Asked about Mr. Putin’s well being on the annual Aspen Security Forum in July, C.I.A. Director William J. Burns didn’t hesitate. “There are lots of rumors about President Putin’s health,” Mr. Burns mentioned. “And as far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy.”

Mr. Sipher and others pointed to a latest growth that doesn’t supply encouragement to these hoping Mr. Putin’s days could also be numbered: an account from a latest defector from Mr. Putin’s elite safety service, Gleb Karakulov.

A safe communications specialist who fled Russia in October, Mr. Karakulov has known as Mr. Putin a struggle legal and would seemingly be joyful to substantiate unhealthy news about his situation.

But in an interview with The Associated Press this month, Mr. Karakulov did the other. If something, he mentioned, Mr. Putin is in higher well being than most individuals his age.