Putin may be suffering ‘roid rage’ caused by cancer drugs, say spies
VLADIMIR PUTIN is suffering from a brain disorder caused by dementia, Parkinson’s disease or ‘roid rage’ resulting from steroid treatment for cancer, intelligence sources have claimed.
Citing sources close to the Kremlin, senior figures in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States – believe there is a physiological explanation for the Russian president’s globally reviled decision to invade Ukraine.
The intelligence community is sharing a growing number of reports about 69-year-old Putin’s ‘increasingly erratic behaviour’, combined with a bloated appearance in recent footage – and the absurd distance he insists on keeping from visitors to the Kremlin.
A security source said: ‘It is only human sources that can offer you the sort of rich picture that we have of Putin’s psyche.
‘There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him.’
The source said this failure to think clearly was being compounded by the lack of a ‘negative feedback loop’, with the Russian leader ‘simply not being briefed’ on elements of failures with the invasion.
It has been reported that Putin had placed Sergey Beseda, the head of the FSB’s foreign service, and his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh, under house arrest after blaming them for intelligence failings that saw his army handed a series of defeats in Ukraine. The intelligence, which is understood to have been passed to senior British political figures, suggests that Putin has suffered a psychological deterioration caused by physiological factors.
They advance theories that Putin is either suffering from a brain condition, such as Parkinson’s disease or a more generic form of dementia, or that he has cancer and the medical treatment he is receiving has altered the balance of his mind.
The last theory, which is considered credible by British intelligence, is that the mental deterioration is the consequence of so-called ‘roid rage’, caused by the prolonged use of steroids.
Sources cite Putin’s decision to physically isolate himself from guests as a sign of a fear of ‘co-morbidities’ – other serious medical conditions that could increase the risk of death – or the use of drugs which suppress the immune system, leaving him open to infections. When Putin met Emmanuel Macron last month the French president was forced to sit at the other end of a 13ft table, while many of those entering his presence have been forced to quarantine in hotels for two weeks beforehand.
The Russian president has appeared notably more bloated around the face and neck recently, which can be a side effect of steroids – along with ‘mood and behavioural changes’.
A French official was also quoted after Macron’s meeting as saying that Putin was ‘not the same’ as when Mr Macron met him two years earlier, having in some respects ‘gone haywire’.
One British intelligence source insisted they were confident of the reliability of the information on Putin’s health, saying: ‘Our intelligence visibility on Russia is just extraordinary. The difference in the quality of our sources around Putin compared with Xi and China is staggering.’
It comes as members of Interpol have called for Russia to be ejected from the international police organisation, to deny Moscow access to sensitive information.
British officials blame Interpol’s president, Major General Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, for blocking moves to eject Russia.
The Emirati general was appointed to the post despite fierce objections from human rights groups, which accuse him of complicity in torture when he was inspector general of the interior ministry in the UAE.
‘Bloated face and neck may be a side effect’