Vladimir Putin’s alleged body double has been posined after being exposed to “toxic substances” leading to an assassination investigation, a Telegram channel has claimed.
The body double, allegedly used as a stand-in for the Russian President, was recently named by Dr Valery Solovey, former professor at a training academy for Russian spies, as Belarusian carpenter Yevgeny Vasilyevich.
Several sources, including Ukraine’s military intelligence service, have claimed that he is one of multiple stand-ins for Putin.
Vasilyevich was seen by Kremlin doctors who thought he was suffering from an allergic reaction after he “developed rashes on the skin of the upper and lower extremities and on the neck,” according to Telegram channel General SVR.
The post continued: “When the test results became known, they urgently contacted the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, who was informed that the double had been exposed to toxic substances.
READ MORE: Putin’s ruthless ‘Hispaniola’ private army of neo-Nazis and football ultras
“The life of the backup was not in danger – probably the dose was too small. Now they are trying to figure out how the toxic substance entered the body of the double.”
Allegedly, Vasilyevich has been used for “numerous meetings and events” as a stand-in for the 71-year-old president, and has therefore been in contact with many people who could have poisoned him.
The channel claimed the FSB and FSO began investigating the incident as a suspected assisination attempt, but evidence of this was pprovided.
Dr Solovey, branded a conspiracy theory by critics, recently released a video alleging that Vasilyevich had been trained by the Moscow secret sevices to act like Putin so that he could pose as him for events. He believes the “real” Putin died following a battle with cancer and has been replaced by a series of lookalikes, controlled by Patrushev.
The theory that Vasilyevich is a stand-in for Putin gained even more traction when Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church, addressed Putin as “Your Excellency, much-esteemed Vladimir Vasilyevich”.
At the time, Dr Solovey called Vasilyevich “the patronymic of the doppelgänger”. In his latest claim, he suggested Putin’s New Year message was given by Vasilyevich, who kept it short so people didn’t have enough time to “look at the appearance” or “listen to the voice of the man”.
Others believe the New Year speech was merely an AI image of Putin, as his neck appeared out of sync with the rest of his body, stirring up the conspiracy that his head was superimposed.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency spokesman, Andriy Yusov, said: “This information [Putin using stand-ins] is confirmed by many sources … [It] is no longer some kind of news or something that needs to be proven in the world.
“The technology of doubles has been used before and is being used now, in particular by Vladimir Putin or his entourage, people who influence the situation in the Kremlin.”
Different sources have different reasons as to why they believe Putin is using lookalikes; whether it be because he is seriously ill, or hiding in a bunker, or even dead. General SVR went to far as to claim that the “poisoned” Vasilyevich will still be used for Russia’s presidential election in March.
