Yesterday there was another explosion of rumors about the "death" of the Russian dictator, which this evening also reached Western media, which miraculously quoted the same source: the (allegedly) mysterious Telegram channel called "General SVR".
But the same channel cut back on the news of a "heart attack at 20:42 p.m.," after which Putin was replaced by a double. Miraculously, after the announcement of his death, Putin met with one of Russia's oldest politicians, and at the time of his death was in a different place than the one mentioned on the Telegram channel, which we will get to later. Now is the time to put the rumors in order and point to an almost permanent source for spreading them.
Putin in a video call with senior Kremlin security officials, yesterday // Archive, photo: AFP
Let's start with what is known about Putin's health. First, a few years ago he fell while riding a horse and, as far as is known, has been suffering from back problems ever since. Second, Project journalists reported about a year ago that once every few months, Putin undergoes comprehensive examinations, with an emphasis on oncology. Does that mean he has cancer? Not necessarily.
A more conservative assumption – and let's be careful not to confuse the desired with the common – would be to say that he fears that he will get cancer. Third: Putin's health is "a secret behind seven underwriters," as they say in Russian. To what extent? So much so that during his travels he is accompanied by a special assistant who collects his excrement after him.
Valery Solovey in one of the broadcasts, photo: from YouTube
Now we are entering the rumor zone, and there has been no shortage of such in the past year. Once Putin has Parkinson's, once with cancer, more than once he dies, and once in a while there are also rumors that "something is happening in the Kremlin." I won't vouch for all cases, but in most of them — including the current one about "Putin's death" and his replacement by a double — they seem to have one source: a man named Valery Solovey, a historian by training who worked at Moscow State University until his ouster (because of credibility problems), and who taught marketing and media courses such as "PR and Advertising in Politics," "Fundamentals of Information War and Media Manoeuvre," and "Foundations of Government Policy in Media Affairs."
The courses dealt with the various ways in which viewers' consciousness can be manipulated, flaws in critical thought can be exploited, and the human tendency to seek secret knowledge and conspiracies. Russian journalist and fact-checker Ilya Bar said in a post on his Facebook page this morning that Solovey himself ridiculed the nonsense he taught, but it seems that after his expulsion from the university he had to make a living - and became a manipulator himself.
Putin at a reception with graduates of Kremlin military academies // Archive, photo: AP
"Imagine my astonishment," Barr writes, "when, in 2017, Soloway made a 180-degree shift and began using all the tricks and shticks he taught his students to reveal. I think he himself couldn't believe how successful it would be. He does not come off the screens, constantly muttering and making predictions. The fact that his predictions have no coverage has no bearing. He knew theory and realized in practice that the general public understands very little and remembers nothing, and people as a whole simply want to be told at any given moment what they want to hear, but preferably also with elements of intrigue and suspense."
Putin talks about investigation into Prigozhin plane explosion // Archive | Telegram channel "Mayek"
These descriptions get a lot of clicks, Barr continues, and since the networks promote popular and not necessarily high-quality content, journalistic or quasi-journalistic YouTube channels also invite Soloway to them (because views are worth money), and thus the Soloway phenomenon has grown out of proportion: his remarks reach tabloids such as The Sun, but also rumor aggregators on the Internet, WhatsApp and Telegram in Israel.
Now, there's one more way in which Soloway's amusements are reinforced and take on a tone of mysterious importance: the same General SVR Telegram channel that both the English Daily Mirror and the American Newsweek relied on tonight in their rumored Major reports. "This is a channel that supposedly receives leaks from Russian Military Intelligence (SVR), but actually belongs to a lawyer from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Viktor Yarmolayev," Barr writes.
According to him, the person responsible for the channel's content is none other than our informant Solovey, who completely coincidentally also promotes Putin's theory of doubles. Does Putin have doubles? As far as is known, there are people who are relatively similar to him and are used for security purposes, but not those who can be presented up close as Putin himself.
Presidents of Russia and China in the Kremlin // Archive, photo: AFP
When are these rumors widespread and why? Russian anthropologist Dr. Alexandra Archipova, one of whose specialties is the patterns of dissemination and reception of fakes and conspiracies in the post-Soviet space, has prepared a graph comparing the dynamics of the two rumors (about Putin's death and the existence of doubles). Archipova draws attention to the fact that rumors are popping up around dramatic events.
The peaks were at the beginning of the war and in its first months, when it had not yet become routine for Russian citizens, and then around the announcement of the general mobilization in September last year. Why then? According to Archipova, "The reason is hypersemiotization: in cases of social disasters, uncertainty and anxiety, people begin to see and predict what is not. So with the start of the war or the draft, some people start to think it's not Putin.
However, it is also possible that spreading the word is supported by the desire to avoid cognitive dissonance: the person does not want to rebel against the regime and at the same time wants to explain to himself what is happening. And his brain offers a way out: 'It is impossible for the (real) Putin to say and do this. That's why the real Putin died long ago and was replaced."
On Friday evening, it was also speculated that such rumors could also be experiments by the PSB (the Russian Shin Bet), aimed at testing loyalties at the top. Is it? Not sure. It is quite possible that some of the rumors are leaked by elements linked, for example, to Ukrainian intelligence as part of psychological warfare against the invaders. However, like the rumors of Putin's death, the rumors of his motives are also supposedly revealing a bit to give readers' imaginations room to run wild. After all, conspiracy theories flourish precisely because people seek to add meanings where they are not, and to make their lives more engaging without getting out of their armchairs.
In any case, at some point Putin will really be credited with life, but as far as is known as of now, the rumors of his death were premature – and perhaps even aimed precisely for us to discuss it. Here, it's a fact that you've read the text to the end.
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