Similar rumors have been circulating for years. Now Kyrylo Budanov (36), head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, makes an extraordinary claim: Russian war president Vladimir Putin (70) uses three look-alikes.
Even in opposition Russian media, such claims cannot be dismissed. The Telegram station “General SVR”, which is usually well informed about what is happening in the Kremlin, reported without fear that Putin was not satisfied with the appearance of a doppelgänger during a visit to the barracks on October 20 in Ryazan. Putin “believed that the doppelganger was too restless and behaving that didn’t match the original”.
Ukrainian Major General Budanov can only agree. It’s all too obvious how the Putin copies would differ from the original. That’s why Putin had three look-alikes who had undergone plastic surgery. Outwardly, they deceptively resemble Putin. But their movements and behavior would expose them.
Telling body language and earlobes
Speaking to the British newspaper Mail on Sunday, Budanov claims that the Ukrainian secret services have discovered Putin’s doppelgängers on some “special occasions”.
The Kremlin boss is now under so much pressure that it’s “common custom” to double-use in his place. “We specifically know three people who keep showing up,” Budanov says. “But we don’t know how many there actually are.”
Their characteristics are clear: “They all had plastic surgery to look the same. The only thing that gives it away is the size. This can be seen in videos and photos. The gestures, the body language and the earlobes would also judge them Because they are “unique to each person”, Budanov himself asked the “big question”, “Does the real Putin still exist?”
«Change in Moscow inevitable»
Undermining the enemy’s credibility may well be all Ukrainian war propaganda. Budanov also says that the Kremlin is running out of guided missiles and that Ukraine’s recapture of the southern city of Kherson could have dramatic consequences for the Russian regime.
He does not answer questions about whether the ‘real’ Putin may have already disappeared – for health reasons or after a coup in the Kremlin. Budanov says so much: “Change in Moscow is inevitable.”
The leading army is not only convinced of Ukraine’s victory over the invaders. Putin will be ousted from power and the war will change the Russia of the future. Russia “will be a different country with a different leadership and different borders”. (keep)