Is Putin about to QUIT? Russian president may step down due to ill health, Kremlin expert sensationally claims
When asked if Putin was ill, he said: "Let me not say more, I have said enough"
RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin might step down in mysterious circumstances, according to a political expert.
Valery Solovey, professor at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs, hinted the Russian strongman leader might be suffering from ill health and may be forced to "avoid publicity in 2017 for several months or will appear very rarely".
He said: "As you see, this hypothetical situation is very nervy from the point of view of Russian policy."
When asked if Putin was ill, he added: "Let me not say more, I have said enough.
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"And let me stress once again: this information is not absolutely reliable. Still, it should be considered."
His comments appeared in an interview with news website Moskovsky Komsomolets but was deleted soon after it went up, reports .
The article says he could be replaced by current premier Dmitry Medvedev, who has already served a four-year term as president ending in 2012 and Alexei Dyumin, 44, the former deputy defence minister.
Vladimir Putin's spokesman said the Russian president is hoping for improved relations with the US when Donald Trump becomes president, describing the two men as "very much alike" in how they see the world.
Russia hopes "for their good personal relationship," Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Associated Press.
But Peskov warned it will take time to restore trust in relations that are at their lowest point in decades.
Suspicions about Trump's relationship with Putin's government dogged his presidential campaign, in large part because the US accused Russia of hacking into Democratic Party email systems in an apparent effort to influence the outcome of the election.
Peskov said Russian experts were in contact with some members of Trump's staff during the campaign, but he reiterated the Russian government and security agencies had nothing to do with the cyberattacks. A Trump spokeswoman denied there were any contacts between the campaign and "any foreign entity."