As of: February 10, 2024, 7:23 a.m
By: Kilian Beck
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Putin's foot twitches.
The international tabloid press speculates about the state of health.
Experts have been warning against jumping to conclusions for years.
Moscow – There has been repeated speculation about the health of Russian President Vladimir Putin since his renewed attack on Ukraine.
The conversation with the right-wing radical US agitator Tucker Carlson is now fueling this again.
The British tabloid
Daily Mail
headlined on Friday (February 9) that Putin's leg was "cramping" in one place.
In the scene in question, Putin first lifts the toe of his left foot, then slides his left hand down his thigh, apparently pushing his foot to the ground.
The Bild newspaper
also
joined in the speculation about a “seizure.”
Vladimir Putin in conversation with Tucker Carlson.
© Gavriil Grigorov/dpa
Expert: “Not every tremor is Parkinson’s” – If Putin dies, it could plunge Russia into chaos
When the first speculations about Putin's health arose in 2022, general practitioner Manfred Imbert explained to the
German Press Agency
: From outward appearances, "there is never a certainty, but initially only a probability." In Putin's case, it has long been speculated whether he might the degenerative nerve disease Parkinson's or may have had a heart attack or stroke.
According to Imbert, the basic rule is: “Not every tremor is Parkinson’s.”
However, certain symptoms could also become visible externally.
A rigid facial expression, delayed reactions or dizzy spells could indicate the illness.
According to the doctor, the symptoms of a stroke depend on how long and which part of the brain was cut off from the blood supply.
In the fall of 2023, a Russian Telegram blog spread a rumor that 71-year-old Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest and had been resuscitated.
The report was considered relatively unbelievable at the time.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin denied it.
If the rumors have any basis in truth, that would be a problem for the regime.
If the strong man at the top is gone, chaos could ensue.
“The Kremlin has many towers, which means there are several rival clans vying for power.
At the top of the pecking order is a clan of security service elites,” Yuri Zhukov, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, told US news magazine
Newsweek
.
Doctor warned against misinterpretation by “laypeople” as early as 2022
During talks in which Western leaders tried to stop Putin from invading Ukraine again, the several-meter-long table to which the dictator forced his interlocutors sparked speculation.
Was it just the power of a man for whom violence is the method of choice, or did he have something to hide?
In principle, several doctors agreed with the dpa at the time that few of the diseases discussed could actually be recognized from the outside.
At the time, dermatologist Christiane Bayerl warned against an untrained eye: “Unfortunately, a lot of things are misinterpreted by laypeople.”
(kb with dpa)