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Do you remember the british spy who prepared a report on the stay of Donald Trump in Moscow in which he claimed that the tycoon met with prostitutes in a luxury hotel? It is Christopher Steele, the same one who wrote a dossier on the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections in which Trump won, and who now maintains that Vladimir Putin is “seriously ill”. Steele did not clarify what illness the president of Russia nor the state of it: “It is not clear exactly what this disease is, if it is incurable or terminal, or whatever. But certainly, I think it’s part of the equation,” he added in an interview on Sky News.
For weeks there has been speculation about the health of the tenant of the Kremlinwhich according to the American magazine New Lines She’s so bad. For this, it is supported in an audio recording of a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin in which this businessman tells a colleague that the Russian leader is “very sick with blood cancer.” This conversation was recorded in mid-March and the editors of the publication assure that the identity of this oligarch can be easily identified.
The theory of Putin’s supposed illness has been widely used by some of his detractors since it would serve to explain in part why the Russian leader has decided to invade Ukraine and support a war unimaginable to most Russians and Europeans just three months ago. In the recording, the oligarch can be heard saying that Putin underwent back surgery related to his blood cancer shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine. The oligarch added that the president has gone “crazy.”
From the Kremlin, however, the Russian president is said to be fit and well. just a few days before, Ukrainian Major General Kyrylo Budanov claimed that the Russian leader is seriously ill with cancer and that a coup is under way in Russia to remove him. In an interview, Budanov said that in addition to cancer, the Russian leader was also battling other illnesses.
Steele said in an interview with Britain’s Sky News television: “When you see that happen, you think it’s probably true. So, I think there is an element to his illness that has to do with the decision to invade Ukraine and his legacy.” Steele added: “In general, there are very few people who are prepared to confront or argue with President Putin. However, I think there are dissenting voices, dissenting voices, people telling you that this is a disastrous war, that the economy is not going to be good for Russia. We can only hope that that will lead to some kind of policy change, or even regime change in due course, but it is certainly not a given.”
A dissident former Russian colonel
Discordant voices are also emerging within Russia. This week, Mijail Khodarenokmilitary analyst and retired colonel in Russia, offered a disturbing reflection on the course of the war and Putin’s intentions. “First I must say that you should not take informational sedatives. Sometimes they hear reports about a morale and psychological crisis in the Ukrainian armed forces, that their mood is supposedly close to collapse. “To put it sparingly, that is not true,” said the colonel, who warned that “the situation for us will get worse” since Ukraine receives additional military aid from the West and that “the Ukrainian army can arm a million people”.
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