VLADDY DOUBLE
Bizarre video ‘proving’ Putin uses body doubles goes viral in Russia as it exposes key facial clues on ‘doppelganger’
A BIZARRE video claiming to prove Vladimir Putin uses body doubles for trips he doesn't want to take has gone viral.
The clip raises questions regarding the Russian President's recent trip to Mariupol, suggesting a doppelganger was sent in his place.
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Presumably intended to snap Russian people out of the illusion propped up by uber-loyalist state media, the footage encouraged viewers to ponder: "Who is ruling Russia?"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously suggested that the leader may already be dead, amid suspicions he used a "chroma key" green screen to fake meetings that he did not really attend.
Despite Putin being dogged by claims he cons the public with body doubles for years, his recent visit to the stricken city has prompted sceptics to put a magnifier on his facial features.
The video points out a number of inconsistencies in the tyrant's appearance during various different publicity stunts.
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The footage poses the question: "Who visited Mariupol?”
It states: "Specialists long ago noticed the differences between the Russian president’s body doubles.
"A ledge on Putin’s earlobe constantly changes. As does a small mole on his face.
"One of the Putins has straight wrinkles on his face, the other has small and interrupted [wrinkles].
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"This is impossible even if he had botox injections."
The anonymous creators of the clip included a series of images comparing the difference in Putin's features to back up the claims.
Despite denying he has had any tweaks, the warlord is believed to have undergone several cosmetic procedures over the years.
Rumours are rife that he now relies heavily on his "understudies" to stand in for him as he struggles to disguise his ailing health.
Bombshell spy documents leaked to The Sun appeared to confirm he has pancreatic cancer and early-stage Parkinson's disease.
It is alleged that Putin enlisted several lookalikes to go under the knife for plastic surgery to ensure they closely resemble him.
"Evidently the weakest double was sent to Mariupol," the video continues. "They forgot to put in his jaw."
It honed in on footage of Putin visiting the Russian-occupied territory last week, which showed a significant amount of sagging around his chin.
'HOW MANY PUTIN'S DO WE HAVE?'
The barmy video then questions if the alleged doppelganger has false teeth.
It concludes by asking: "After all, how many Putin's do we have? Who is ruling Russia?"
It comes after Ukraine already teased the tyrant for supposedly "sending a lookalike to war-ravaged Mariupol."
Kyiv official Anton Gerashchenko posted three images of Putin’s chin and questioned whether they belonged to the same man.
He taunted: "What’s up with your chin, Putin?"
"Looks like lately his make-up artists (i.e. for the recent trips of the bunker man to the occupied Crimea and Mariupol) had to work with quite a low-quality copy, not even a double but its copy.
"I wonder which one of them was real?"
His pictures showed Putin, 70, one month ago in an address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow.
CHIN UP
Another was Putin’s reported visit to naval port Sevastopol in Crimea on March 18.
And the third was from footage released the following day evidently showing the dictator in war-blitzed Mariupol.
The first image showed his chin tight and precise.
But the image in Sevastopol - grabbed from Ukraine in 2014 - incited a sagging chin, while the Mariupol chin appears firmer but less so than in the Moscow picture.
Kremlin "insider" Telegram channel General SVR - that claims to have sources in the Russia state - said the real Putin never visited Mariupol.
They claimed that "the double was filmed but did not talk much and did not stay anywhere for a long time."
"The whole country is already laughing over the inconsistency of the understudy with the original” in appearance, behavior and habits."
Two former Putin associates have also suggested that the despot uses body doubles.
FORMER CLASSMATE'S CLAIMS
A former KGB spy who studied with him at espionage school - Sergei Zhirnov - said he had believed that claims of Putin using doppelgängers were "conspiracy theories" - but has now changed his mind.
He contrasted a formal speech made in Moscow by an isolated, "skinny" and coughing ex-spy Putin on February 21 with an appearance at a pro-war rally the next day in the city.
In this case, "a totally different Putin pops up" with "a wider face as if he bloated in 24 hours", he told Ukrainian TV.
Zhirnov also claimed there was a dead giveaway that proves his old classmate is using a stand-in.
"He has a totally different shape of eye orbits, a totally different head, absolutely different wrinkles - a different voice," he said.
And a former Putin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov warned that the existence of several doubles could cause havoc amid the Ukraine war.
He said: "The presence of a double can interfere: you think that you have arrested Putin, but it turns out that you have held his understudy.
"You can arrest a stand-in, show him on TV signing his ‘resignation’, and announce the transfer of power to the Prime Minister or to some Committee of National Salvation."
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But it would be necessary for the "original Putin to prove that he is him, and not a double."
He added: "In short, if the doppelganger exists, then the people responsible for his movements are potentially very important participants in the process and the organisers of the conspiracy should not forget about them."
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