Does Vladimir Putin Have Cancer?

Vladimir Putin may be suffering from cancer of the spine or pancreas, if some news outlets possess accurate information.

Despite the Russian president’s macho image as an outdoorsman and martial artist, rumors of this nature have circulated before in several elements of the overseas media over the last few years.

The latest health rumor has surfaced in the Page Six celebrity gossip section of the New York Post, which claims that the illness may explain Putin’s rush to invade Ukraine as well as changes in his physical appearance.

With regard to Ukraine, The Inquisitr previously reported that Putin allegedly tried to hatch a plan back in 2008 to invade Ukraine and divide the country with Poland, according to a top Polish government official. There is also growing concern in the Baltic region that Russia could eventually invade other neighboring countries with ethnically Russian populations, as it did in Ukraine.

This week, Putin leveled criticism at U.S. foreign policy for in his view putting the world at risk and endangering global security. According to the Washington Times, however, President Obama’s weak response as perceived by national security experts to Russia’s aggressiveness has emboldened Putin to push the envelope: “Russian military provocations have increased so much over the seven months since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine that Washington and its allies are scrambling defense assets on a nearly daily basis in response to air, sea and land incursions by Vladimir Putin’s forces. Not only is Moscow continuing to foment unrest in Eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials and regional security experts say Russian fighter jets are testing U.S. reaction times over Alaska and Japan’s ability to scramble planes over its northern islands — all while haunting Sweden’s navy and antagonizing Estonia’s tiny national security force.”

With regard to Russia’s aforementioned expansionist ambitions, Page Six scribe Richard Johnson noted, “Others say Putin has three years to live and wants to leave a legacy of expanding the Russian borders just like Peter the Great or Stalin.”

Specifically about the Putin cancer rumors, Johnson claimed that…

“News outlets from Belarus to Poland have reported for months that the Russian strongman has cancer of the spinal cord. But my sources say it’s pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal forms of the disease. Putin is allegedly being treated by an elderly doctor from the old East Germany whom Putin met decades ago while serving in Dresden for the KGB. The doctor has been trying various treatments including steroid shots, which would explain Putin’s puffy appearance…”

Writing earlier this year for the U.K. website The Week, intelligence analyst and British military vet Crispin Black asserted that given the Russian leader’s influence on the world stage, the status of Putin’s health is important both domestically and internationally.

“President Putin is seriously ill, according to a number of seasoned observers of the Russian scene. Some of them suggest that he is suffering from cancer, perhaps even one of the most feared forms of the disease — cancer of the spinal cord, which might explain his periodically bad back…

What happens to Putin is important to us all even though his fervent nationalism and strong preference for ‘traditional’ (his word) sexuality have upset Western elite opinion…

Like many Russian leaders before him, Putin’s rule, although obeying the forms of the (elastic) Russian constitution, is basically personal. He is Tsar in all but name, and like the Romanovs, has appropriated a large chunk of Russia’s wealth to himself. Unlike the Romanovs, he has no obvious heir. If he becomes seriously ill in office, any succession struggle will be made doubly bitter by the extreme wealth as well as political power up for grabs.”

Black also observed that around Christmas time last year, Putin uncharacteristically freed one of his foes from jail after 10 years because the man’s mother had a terminal cancer diagnosis. “Some have suggested [Putin] is clearing his conscience.”

Do you think that there is any basis for the Vladimir Putin cancer rumors?

[Image via ID1974 / Shutterstock.com]