Putin’s new year’s speech has experts scratching their heads if it is really him

Putin appeared in a pre-recorded address to the nation (Picture: Reuters)

Vladimir Putin’s televised speech on New Year’s Eve was mostly unremarkable – he made only passing reference to the war in Ukraine, hailing his soldiers as heroes.

Yet the pre-recorded video, broadcasted before midnight across all of Russia, still sparked rumours online that the president is actually dead.

The address to the nation was a more subdued affair than the previous year’s, but the public was more focused on the actual image, with some claiming it was all AI.

Sol Rogers, global director of innovation at Magnopus, told Metro.co.uk AI could have ‘easily’ generated the speech ‘entirely’.

‘It is hard to tell, it is at least greenscreen. But AI could easily have generated his new year’s eve speech entirely, from writing it, to presenting it,’ said the digital animation and VFX expert.

He pointed out there are already platforms available on the market, which people can use to create presenters from a catalog.

‘If this is what is available to the general public just imagine what is currently used behind closed doors,’ Mr Rogers added.

But another VFX expert, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Putin did not receive any digital assistance in his speech.

‘Looking at it straight off the bat without referencing previous pictures of Putin, it looks plausible that it is real and not an AI-generated image,’ he said.

‘I am specifically focusing on the wobbly chin.

‘Then looking at recent pictures of him and re-watching, I would say that the chin is real.

‘He does appear to have this flabby skin on his chin, but I did not notice anything that would give it away.

‘He does like to wear plenty of makeup though.’

Speculation that this was not the real president seem to have been fuelled by the anonymous ‘General SVR’ Telegram account that claims to have Kremlin insider knowledge.

A message to subscribers claimed this was Putin’s double and several versions of the speech were recorded just in case.

‘To everyone who is at a combat post, at the forefront of the fight for truth and justice: You are our heroes, our hearts are with you. We are proud of you, we admire your courage,’ Putin said.

Ukraine was not mentioned by name, nor the ‘special military operation’, Putin’s term for the invasion.

There was also no mention in his speech of the hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers estimated to have been killed or wounded, or the repeated spilling over of the conflict onto home territory, seen dramatically in Saturday’s Ukrainian attack on the city of Belgorod.

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