Since the conflict in Ukraine began, multiple claims have appeared in the press and on social media scrutinizing Russian President Vladimir Putin's health.
Journalists, news outlets and Russia experts have reported both during and before the war that Putin may have cancer or is otherwise terminally ill.
In May 2022, former U.K. intelligence officer Christopher Steele claimed the Russian leader broke up meetings of his security council to receive "some kind of medical treatment between those sections," while the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service said Putin would be "gone by 2023, but probably into the sanatorium."
Some of the rumors about Putin's alleged ailing health have appeared on social media platform Telegram (which was founded by a Russian entrepreneur and is prone to misinformation due to the anonymous nature of public channels) including that he had not attended engagements during May 2022 as he was recovering from "cancer surgery."
Such stories have lit like torch paper as the world's attention is drawn to any cracks in Russian leadership. So, is there a grain of truth to these stories? And what can we say about the sources fueling them?
Russia's sustained efforts to keep world media at bay during the conflict in Ukraine has to some extent backfired because it fanned the rumor mills.
Putin himself has propagated mistruths, denying that Russia has bombed Ukrainian cities (in spite of mounting evidence to the...
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