Does Putin have a body double?

Dmitry Patrushev, deputy prime minister for agriculture, referred to him in a video released by the Kremlin to resume debate as to whether the president has actors posing as him.

Mr Patrushev referred to his boss by another name, which some interpreted as “‘Pal Laich”.

This is thought to be a nickname for Pavel Nikolaevich, who is a body double for Mr Putin according to theories spreading across the internet.

This theory is, however, disputed by Russian expert Dr Mark Galeotti who told The i Paper that Mr Patrushev had, in fact, called Mr Putin by his Russian patronymic, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Dr Galeotti said that this name is “quite a mouthful” and that Mr Patrushev had tripped up in his pronunciation of a contracted version.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich is quite a mouthful,” he said. “It’s quite normal that it gets contracted very dramatically.”

He added: “The bottom line is, if that’d been a slip-up, then that footage would not have been released.”

Does Vladimir Putin have a body double?

Rumours have circulated for years that Mr Putin has several body doubles, deployed to serve at various functions in place of the health-afflicted president.

To start with the rumours of Mr Putin’s poor health, a former MI6 chief told LBC in 2024 that he “probably has Parkinson's".

"I have contacts, friends, still in Eastern Europe who think that there is something fundamentally wrong with him medically," Sir Richard Dearlove said.

There have also been reports of “constant coughing” and “weight loss”. However, the Kremlin has never confirmed that Mr Putin is suffering with illness.

"There are lots of rumours about President Putin's health and as far as we can tell he's entirely too healthy,” CIA director William Burns said previously.

Ukraine's Major General Kyrylo Budanov shared the theory in 2022, showing two pictures that appeared to show Mr Putin with different sizes of ears.

He said: "There are at least three people [body doubles] who periodically appear."

Mr Budanov also claimed that the former KGB agent's height and the shape of his ears have changed throughout the years.

Of course, the Kremlin has not confirmed any of this as fact either, and rumours of a body double are just rumours.

Dr Galeotti said that this latest incident provides no proof of a double existing, as he said it would be “extremely unlikely” that Mr Patrushev would know the name and identity of a body double for Mr Putin.