Yes, Vladimir Putin Has Parkinson's Disease

And his paranoia is at record high levels. The Russians must remove him.

We’ve seen a lot of viral moments recently suggesting Vladimir Putin has Parkinson’s disease. This is nothing new. The story was broken in November, 2020, by Britain’s Sun newspaper, citing Moscow sources. It was a legitimate scoop, and here’s part of that report:

Observers who studied recent footage of Putin noted his legs appeared to be in constant motion and he looked to be in pain while clutching the armrest of a chair.

His fingers are also seen to be twitching as he held a pen and gripped a cup believed to contain a cocktail of painkillers.

Speculation that his 20-year-reign - second only to that of Stalin - could be nearing an end grew earlier this week when laws were drafted to make him a senator-for-life when he resigns.

Legislation introduced by Putin himself was being rushed through parliament to guarantee him legal immunity from prosecution and state perks until he dies.

Moscow political scientist Professor Valery Solovei fuelled further speculation last night by suggesting Putin may have symptoms of Parkinson’s.

The academic said he also understood Putin’s undisclosed partner Alina was pressuring him to quit - along with his daughters Maria Vorontsova , 35, Katerina Tikhonova, 34.

Solovei said: "There is a family, it has a great influence on him. He intends to make public his handover plans in January”.

The professor predicted that Putin would soon appoint a new prime minister who would be groomed to become his eventual successor.

And back in 2015, a team of researchers at he Department of Neurology, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands headed by Professor Bas Bloem identified signs in Putin's gait which could point to Parkinson's.

The researchers spotted how the Russian strongman walks with his left arm unmoving, almost pinned to his side, while his right arm swings freely.

Pictures of the President giving speeches also show him with his right arm resting casually an a lectern, with his left straight by his side.

Later the same month, the same newspaper added that there were rumors going around that Putin had cancer.

Last month, as the invasion was imminent, I spoke to senior sources linked to the UK government and asked them about this. I was told that although these people did not know if Putin had cancer, they could confirm that he has Parkinson’s disease. More importantly, I was told, it is progressing fairly rapidly and Putin is forced to consult his physicians several times a week.

Needless to say, this is not ideal for a man who cultivates a “strong man” image. The puffy face many of us attributed to filler and Botox actually comes from anti-Parkinson’s steroids. Perhaps Putin sits so far away from other men that they cannot see the tremor in his hands.

Parkinson’s is an awful, if fairly common disease. But sources told me it was making the Russian president not only depressed, but paranoid.

However, the most concerning thing that I was told by my sources was that Putin actually believes what he says about Ukraine being gripped by the Nazis, about the Ukrainians wanting to join Greater Russia, and so forth. So intense is his self-belief, or self-deception, that Putin has convinced himself of the rightness of his cause. Specifically, the utter fiction that Ukraine is managed by Neo-Nazis has sunk into Putin’s bones. Before the Russian Ministry of Defense locked up its Twitter account to avoid mean tweets and crisp videos of Russian helicopters being toasted by Stingers, this was one of the last memes they posted:

The text under the letter Z says “For The Truth”.

But of course, it is not in fact true that Ukraine, with its Jewish President, is run by Nazis. Are there some far-right elements, or were there, in the military? Yes. Sure. But to extrapolate that to saying “Ukraine is run by Nazis” is like saying “America is run by Nazis” because some veterans took part in the January 6th attempted insurrection in the US Capitol.

The falseness of the story is not what’s important. What is important is that Vladimir Putin, until recently President of a great power - he’s still President, just of a broke-down piece of junk with nukes - believed it. And that says more about the horrifying incompetence at the Kremlin than anything else. The narrative is false. It is wrong. It’s one thing for ‘Putin’s chef’ to pump out fake news at the Internet Research Agency as part of the Gerasimov Doctrine. It is quite another for the top advisers and generals around Putin to let their boss believe it. I asked my senior source if it was felt in the UK that Putin was becoming mentally ill and was told that the answer to this is ‘yes’.

The collapse of Russia back to communism, at least internationally - currency controls, siezing exports - has been so fast that it’s understandable that Kremlin chiefs are struggling to adjust. But adjust they must. Vladimir Putin must be removed, whether by assassination, arrest or imprisonment. And a new President must take office who is capable of repudiating Putinism and all it stands for. Russia does not seem to understand that it is in the supplicant position. It needs the sanctions to end, and it is now up to the West how and when they end. A peace deal might run along the lines of Russia withdrawing from the whole of Ukraine, (along with Ukraine agreeing not to place bases near its borders, or some other face-saving sop to the new sheriff in Red Square) and then a free and fair referendum in Crimea and the Occupied Territories with both Russia and Ukraine abiding by the result. Ukraine should join NATO after this referendum, promptly. By the time the Russian Army retreats, bloodied, stunned and humiliated, Ukraine will have one of the best-equipped militaries in the whole of Europe, and will be the envy of every green army in the West. We will need them in NATO, and they will have earned their ticket in.