From Deer Blood Baths to Eating Quail Eggs

Rumors and speculation encompassing Vladimir Putin’s well being have swirled in latest weeks as Russia’s globally-condemned invasion of Ukraine carries on.

Russian information outlet Meduza has claimed that some of the Russian political elite are unhappy with the latest predicament but consider that “only a key well being challenge could drive the president from office environment.”

Concerning February 24 when the invasion started off and May well 27 this calendar year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed 4,031 civilians in the place which include 92 ladies, 100 boys, and 69 little ones whose intercourse was not yet recognised according to the Office of the UN Large Commissioner for Human Rights.

When the Russian leader’s wellness is remaining questioned now amid rumors of cancer or Parkinson’s disease, media experiences in the previous have introduced a extremely various image of Putin—one of a healthier president with a liking for sports activities and a dislike of using tobacco.

Right here are some issues about Putin’s way of life that have been reported in the latest decades, nevertheless Newsweek could not independently verify them.

His ‘Simple’ Diet plan

Numerous reviews exist about how Putin’s diet plan is effective and what he eats. Again in 2014 Ben Judah, writer of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Enjoy with Vladimir Putin, wrote in a Newsweek write-up based mostly on numerous interviews that the president tends to eat a late breakfast explained as “substantial” that usually incorporates cottage cheese. Judah also explained him as being fond of quails’ eggs.

Other studies are extra imprecise, like one particular from Pravda, a newspaper the moment owned by the Soviet communist occasion, which said that he prefers healthier food items and has a liking for fish, although this is tough to validate.

Most just lately, Russian condition-owned news company TASS stated in March 2021 that Putin enjoys food items explained as “very simple” but avoids baked meals, citing an job interview with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.

A Lack of Using tobacco and Consuming

Yet another declare attributed to Peskov is that Putin does not approve of using tobacco and that there aren’t a lot of smokers in the president’s near circle.

According to TASS in 2019, Peskov advised reporters: “The president has in no way approved of smoking cigarettes since he advocates a wholesome lifestyle.”

As considerably as consuming goes, Putin is not teetotal and has even stated himself that he would often get bottles of German beer sent to him by Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Angela sends me some bottles of Radeberger beer from time to time,” he stated in a 2018 marketing campaign video in accordance to EuroNews.

Still he has been essential of Russia’s ingesting culture and in 2010 place plans in place to slice liquor consumption in Russia in 50 % in a decade. A Planet Overall health Business report nine decades afterwards identified that Russia, which it reported “has long been regarded as just one of the heaviest-ingesting nations in the world,” observed its alcoholic beverages usage reduce by 43 % from 2003 to 2016.

Sporty Image

It has prolonged been recognized that Putin has a well-crafted macho and sporty persona. Over the yrs different images of the chief have been released by Russia’s presidential press services such as snapshots of him hunting, flying on a motorized hang glider, fishing shirtless, and participating in hockey.

“As Putin reaches his 60th birthday, it is incredibly crucial for him to portray the image of vigor, youth, wellness, dynamism,” Clifford Gaddy, a Brookings Institute economist specializing in Russia, instructed Politico again in 2014. Putin is now 69.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama had a noteworthy feeling on the way Putin was presented or offered himself many several years ago. “My sense is which is element of his shtick back again house politically as wanting to glance like the tricky dude,” he advised NBC Information.

Deer Blood Assert

Earlier this calendar year, Russian investigative information outlet Proekt reported that Putin would once in a while bathe himself in blood attained from deer antlers—an exercise that is “torturous” for the animals but allegedly has wellbeing benefits according to its advocates, even though there is not conclusive evidence for this.

The activity was in the beginning encouraged to Putin by Sergei Shoigu, then-head of the Ministry of Crisis Conditions in the mid-2000s and Putin has allegedly long gone on to do it several times.