Vladimir Putin had to halt the recording of his TV broadcast marking International Women's Day when he coughed and spluttered uncontrollably. The Russian autocrat, 73, was forced to redo the recording.
But in a major blunder by his propaganda machine, they released the entire sequence - showing Russian people his coughing fit. The video is likely to raise new questions about Putin’s health, with earlier revelations from investigative journalists that he never travels without a top thyroid cancer specialist surgeon. There were even claims from Ukrainian sources that an insider may have deliberately leaked the embarrassing footage.
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“You build an image of a young and strong leader [Putin], and then someone leaks one video, and this whole image collapses, and a sick, decrepit old man appears before everyone,” commented war analyst Denis Kazansky.
“It seems that it was leaked on purpose, because the sick senile man has annoyed everyone.”
Putin recorded his eulogy marking today’s [March 8] International Women's Day - an important holiday in Russia - telling the female population in his country: “Of course, it's very challenging to juggle everything — to impress with your beauty and charm while simultaneously being hard-working, determined, and resilient.
