Surrounded by Russian cronies who are terrified to tell him no, Vladimir Putin is hardly a world leader who could be associated with being the most grounded or level headed.
However now a neuropsychologist has revealed how ‘progressive isolation’ during the Covid-19 pandemic could have left the 69-year-old even further detached from reality and ‘diminished his ability to weigh up risk’.
Rambling, terrifying and apocalyptic, the Russian president declared war on Ukraine and gave a chilling warning to its allies in the West yesterday in Moscow.
Professor Ian Robertson, a neuropsychologist at Trinity College Dublin, has suggested he could be suffering from hubris syndrome.
It is commonly associated with a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities.
It is characterised by a pattern of exuberant self-confidence, recklessness and contempt for others, and is most particularly recognised in subjects holding positions of significant power.
It’s far from the first time Putin’s health has been called into question, with repeated reports over the years that the Russian leader was suffering from cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Speculation is mounting that Vladimir Putin could be suffering from the effects of long-Covid, which experts suggesting his ability to ‘weigh up risk’ may have been impacted during the pandemic
Pundits were amused earlier this month when photographs emerged of Emmanuel Macron kept at a distance during his crunch meeting with Putin over Ukraine
Speaking to The I last month, Robertson said Putin’s political trajectory ‘is as much personal as political, because once the hubris syndrome takes hold in the brain, the personal and the national are identical because the leader is the nation and its destiny’.
Meanwhile he also said changes in the frontal lobe of the brain caused by the condition could diminish the person’s ability to weigh up risk.
At the start of the pandemic, Putin went to extraordinary lengths to avoid catching the virus during a hospital visit, donning a full hazmat suit at Russia’s main coronavirus clinic.
But on the whole, the President has stayed decidedly out of the public eye during the Covid-19 crisis, with officials and journalists having to self-isolate before meeting the president.
In March 2020, Putin went to extraordinary lengths to avoid catching the virus during a hospital visit, donning a full hazmat suit at Russia’s main coronavirus clinic
Last year, Russian Olympic medalists invited to meet with president were told they would need to spend a week in quarantine before the meeting went ahead.
And in September, it emerged Putin had entered self-isolation after a member of his entourage contracted Covid-19 despite extensive precautions.
The Russian president abandoned a scheduled trip to Tajikistan, and did not campaign in person for parliamentary elections.
He has been fully vaccinated with the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V – receiving his second jab in April.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin was ‘absolutely healthy’, but would self-isolate after coming in contact with someone who contracted the virus.
He did not clarify for how long Putin would remain in self-isolation, but assured that the president will continue working as usual.
Asked if Putin tested negative for the virus, Peskov said: ‘Of course, yes.’
Peskov did not say who among Putin’s contacts were infected, saying only that there were several cases.
It was claimed earlier this month that Emmanuel Macron was kept at a distance during their crunch meeting over Ukraine after the French President had refused to take a Covid test over fears the Russians would obtain his DNA.
Pundits were struck by photos of Mr Macron and the Russian President sitting at opposite ends of a 13ft long table to discuss the crisis in eastern Europe.
But two sources with knowledge of the French leader’s health protocol said Mr Macron had been asked to take a Covid test by the Kremlin before meeting Mr Putin.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency, the sources claimed that Mr Macron was told either to accept a PCR test conducted by the Russians and be allowed near the dictator, or refuse and abide by more stringent social distancing.
‘We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the president’s DNA,’ one source said, referring to security concerns if the French leader was tested by Russian doctors.
‘The Russians told us Putin needed to be kept in a strict health bubble,’ the second source said.
Footage weeks later showed the leader having a coughing fit during a TV appearance.
Putin was holding a meeting with officials to discuss the ‘acute financial problems’ caused by coronavirus when he suffered the bout of coughing.
The video was later edited so that Putin’s coughing fit seemed less severe.
State news agency TASS asked the Kremlin about Putin’s health and was told he was ‘absolutely normal’.
‘The president apologised and continued the meeting almost without pausing,’ the agency said.
It’s not the first time that reports have emerged of Putin’s ongoing health battles.
Experts previously noted his ‘gunslinger’s gait’ – a clearly reduced right arm swing compared to his left, giving him a lilting swagger.
An asymmetrically reduced arm swing is a classic feature of Parkinson’s and can manifest in ‘clinically intact subjects with a predisposition to later develop’ the disease, according to the British Medical Journal.
In 2014, the Kremlin denied reports from an American newspaper that Putin maybe suffering from pancreatic cancer.
The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency saying: ‘Dream on – and curse their tongues. Everything is normal.’
Peskov had been asked to comment on the reports from The New York Post, which spread to other media.
Vladimir Putin entered self-isolation after a member of his entourage contracted Covid-19 a day after meeting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in September last year
The US paper’s report headlined ‘Putin’s Health Woes’ claimed there were rumours in Poland and Belarus that the 62 year old strongman had ‘cancer of the spinal cord’.
But the Post’s Richard Johnson wrote: ‘My sources say it’s pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal forms of the disease.’
The report went on: ‘Putin was allegedly being treated by a doctor from the old East Germany.
‘The doc had been trying various treatments, including steroid shots, which would explain Putin’s puffy appearance.
‘But I’m told the physician quit recently, confiding that he was mistreated by Putin’s security detail.’
Later that year in November, a prominent critic of Putin claimed that the Russian president was suffering from cancer and underwent surgery.
Valery Solovei, who claims to have sources ‘at the epicentre of decision making’, suggested 68-year-old Putin had the operation in February.
Another unnamed source suggested the operation was on Putin’s abdomen.
Solovei also suggested that he has Parkinson’s.
Solovei, former head of PR at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, believed at the time that Putin planned on stepping down in January due to his health problems and was planning to name daughter Katerina Tikhonova as his successor.
Speaking about Putin’s alleged ill-health, he said: ”One is of psycho-neurological nature, the other is a cancer problem.
‘If anyone is interested in the exact diagnosis, I’m not a doctor, and I have no ethical right to reveal these problems.
‘The second diagnosis is a lot, lot more dangerous than the first named diagnosis as Parkinson’s does not threaten physical state, but just limits public appearances.
Critics have previously noted his ‘gunslinger’s gait’ – a clearly reduced right arm swing compared to his left, giving him a lilting swagger. An asymmetrically reduced arm swing is a classic feature of Parkinson’s
‘Based on this information people will be able to make a conclusion about his life horizon, which wouldn’t even require specialist medical education.’
The Kremlin firmly denied that there is anything wrong with Putin’s health at the time.
It was unclear exactly when Solovei believes the alleged cancer operation took place, but sources claimed Putin’s first appearance afterwards was a flower-laying ceremony on February 19.
Solovei also claimed that Putin’s gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva, have been urging him to step down from power.
Footage circulated in Russia of Putin’s legs moving around as he gripped onto the armrest of a chair, suggesting his ill health.
Eyes are also drawn to a twitching pen in the former KGB operative’s fingers and a cup which analysts suggested were filled with painkillers.
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