Vladimir Putin was speaking to an audience in Chukotka, Russia, when he made the comments (Picture: Getty Images)
Vladimir Putin said his friends are sometimes unsure who he is while rumours continue to swirl that he is using body doubles.
The Russian leader was speaking to an audience in Chukotka, the far east of the country, when he made the comments.
Putin said: ‘When I [very occasionally] meet my classmates or fellow university students, they often look at me and say, “I don’t believe it, is it actually you, or not you?”‘ he said.
‘You see, a person doesn’t always know how they would behave when they find themselves at a certain level of responsibility.’
His comments come after rumours have intensified over the last few months that body doubles have been used in place of the dictator.
The Kremlin was forced to issue an incredible denial that Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest and died in October last year, and was stashed in a freezer.
The leader’s top security aide and potential successor even referred to Putin in past tense in November – making some think the rumours were confirmed.
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Rumours have intensified over the last few months that body doubles have been used in place of the dictator (Picture: AP)
Dr Valery Solovey, a former professor at Moscow’s Institute of International Relation – who has long led claims the president is dead – doubled down on the claims.
He said: ‘The so-called “Putin” publicly complained that his friends no longer recognised him and believed that they were dealing with a double.’
Ukrainian TV interviewer Dmitry Gordon challenged Dr Solovey, asking him: ‘Now it turns out that Putin is alive [and not dead as you said].
‘So you tell me, is he in the freezer or is he alive and well?’
Some believe the Russian president died in October after a cardiac arrest and his body is now in a freezer (Picture: AP)
The academic, who used to teach Russian spies and diplomats and is now branded a foreign agent by the Kremlin, responded: ‘He is in a freezer.
‘He was moved in December to a new refrigerator… to one designed to store bodies.
‘That’s the only change that applies to him after his death [in October]. There were no other changes.
‘So all of the information I have given you remains the same… And there’s no chance of him being resurrected.’
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It is also regularly alleged the Russian leader is terminally ill with cancer.
Dr Solovey claims Putin’s death will be announced later this year, and 46-year-old agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev will succeed him.
Dmitry Patrushev is the son of Nikolai Patrushev, 72, secretary of the Russian security council.
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