Double Jeopardy

A Spent Kremlin's Last Façade

(Vladimir Putin in 2015, Alexi Nikolsky/AP)

Russia has a long history of prominent imposters.

Stalin used at least four body doubles – a practice adopted by Soviet protégés like Castro in Cuba, who rightly feared assassination.

After the death of Tsar Boris Godunov in 1605, Russia cycled through a number of pretenders claiming to be the youngest son of his predecessor, Ivan the Terrible.

Three or four ‘false Dmitrys’ held or contested power before Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich took the throne in 1613 for the house of Romanov.

In our time, there has been regular speculation and chatter about Vladimir Putin’s use of one or more lookalikes since at least 2017.

In 2021 the Telegram channel ‘General SVR’ – an anonymous account claiming to be run by a veteran of Russia’s foreign intelligence service — began mentioning a double. This channel started in Russian on Telegram and Twitter in 2020; added YouTube in 2021; and an English version on Twitter on March 10, 2022 – just two weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had begun.

General SVR has unspecified links to Moscow-based Valeriy Solovey, a strongly nationalist political activist, gossip-monger and academic specializing in propaganda who has had a popular YouTube channel since 2011.

General SVR and Solovey regularly claimed Putin was ill. The former diagnosed advanced Parkinson’s to explain the hand and foot tremors visible in videos. The latter claiming Putin was facing terminal cancer. Such rumours circulated for two decades; the Atlantic detailed several potential infirmities in 2005.

(Vladimir Putin in profile in 2017 Mickhail Svetlov/Getty)

In response to such claims, then-CIA director William Burns joked on July 21st, 2022 that Putin was “entirely too healthy.” Four days later General SVR claimed a visit to Ryazan had featured one of two doubles. In August 2022, Ukrainian intelligence confirmed Putin’s use of multiple body doubles, and provided image analysis.

I first started to wonder about Putin doppelgängers during COVID when Putin, the avowed germaphobe, held meetings at long tables in the Kremlin, then fraternized at close quarters with crowds during trips. How could these be the same people?

In late 2022 and early 2023, the double was becoming more prominent. After years of observing Putin at close quarters as in Russia and Canada, including at the 2002 G8 summit at Kananaskis, the differences were obvious.

The double walked differently. His mannerisms were busier, less fluid. His face, ears, cheekbones and chin – despite painstaking surgery and makeup – were not a match. The double’s facial expressions were less forceful. When off script, his turn of phrase was less clear-cut, woollier, warmer. Most of all, his intonation was less severe – especially on Ukraine, a topic Putin had treated with vituperation.

As the double gained a higher profile, I didn’t make much of this Kremlin charade — one of many signs of Moscow’s descent into dictatorial nihilism.

Then in June 2023, Prigozhin’s mercenaries mutinied, took Rostov in southern Russia and moved on Moscow. On June 23, the usually well-oiled Kremlin propaganda machine, perhaps spooked by this rebellion, slipped up. As television showed the double laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin walls, another feed featured the real Putin hosting an emergency videoconference with his all-powerful Security Council.

From that point on, I analyzed Kremlin footage more closely. In July, I could find only three events with the real Putin — including a twelve-minute rant on July 21. In August the real Putin was gone, re-appearing briefly in Sochi on September 4, 2023 alongside visiting Turkish president Erdogan.

After that, nothing.

(Putin’s double in profile, March 25, 2025)

Kremlin video and photos since that date feature the double, not Putin.

General SVR and Solovey claim Putin died in late October, but there is no way to confirm this claim, just as Putin’s ailments were never verified.

Meanwhile, in countless photos and videos the Kremlin releases there is enough evidence to convince me Putin himself is no longer in the frame.

Whatever AI, makeup and repeated surgical touch-ups are applied to enhance the double’s appearance, this is not Putin.

He doesn’t move like Putin. His judo-influenced lope is gone. The double often forgets to hold his right arm stiff while swinging his left.

In August 2023, the ‘president’s’ watch was on the wrong wrist: the real Putin wore it on his right arm – the opposite of what right-handed people normally do.

This is all grist for British tabloids, the New York Post, even the Wall Street Journal.

But how could we know for sure?

If the double has undertaken all public events since September 2023, then he has been through two marathon annual press interviews, a sham ‘election’ campaign and dozens of public events. How could so many be fooled, for so long?