Vladimir Putin’s puffy face and swollen cheeks have captured attention after he was spotted on the Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Fearing a coup or assassination by Ukraine, he was branded a ‘deeply frightened, ageing dictator’ at the massive parade this weekend.
Ukrainian commentator Anton Gerashchenko pointed to 1 unflattering image of the 73-year-old’s swollen cheeks, observing: ‘The face of a ‘victor’ and the leader of a ‘superpower’. It seems sanctions have even reached Putin’s Botox.’
His lopsided face and ‘melting wax’ face have been cause for concern amongst his supporters and critics.
In 2022, reports from contained in the Kremlin said that Putin had begun to make use of Botox ‘heavily’ amid concerns for his health.
Unconfirmed reports years ago, which resurfaced this 12 months, have suggested the leader has cancer, with an FSB officer claiming he had ‘not more than two to 3 years to remain alive’.
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Crimean Wind said: ‘History shows that many dictators visibly aged before the autumn of their regime or their death. Scientists link this to chronic stress, paranoid fear of losing power, and isolation, which speed up the body’s ageing.’
Normally, Russia’s Victory Day parade is a big fanfare event with tanks, nuclear warheads and 1000’s of soldiers marching in Moscow.
This 12 months, nonetheless, was very scaled back, with some commentators saying the smaller event shows Putin is losing his power.
Alexey Kopytko said: ‘On the parade, the centre of attention was not the leader of a superpower, but a drained old man with shifty eyes whom they still tolerate. And he senses it.
‘Either Putin himself is afraid, or he’s being wound up and intimidated this fashion — which causes him to develop into fearful and paranoid.’
The Victory Day Parade, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany within the Second World War, is Russia’s largest military holiday.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, an infinite sacrifice that left a deep scar within the national psyche and stays a rare point of consensus within the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule.
Victory Day parades on Red Square have involved a broad array of heavy weapons – from armoured vehicles to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles – yearly since 2008.
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