As the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating, some analysts have questioned the Russian president’s health and mood. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested the former KGB spy may be suffering from ‘little man syndrome’.
A wife of a Russian oligarch said she is afraid because Putin does not care about the consequences of the war when he is ill.
Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford told Times Radio that Mr Wallace’s comments were an attempt to “cut down” Putin, but that he may have a “self-defeating death wish”.
She said: “That was an attempt to reduce what Putin does as if to say, ‘You’re such an inferior person, you’re so small, you basically have to run around and show everyone how awesome you are.. …to make up for your own shortcomings’.
“He has that potential to be very dramatic.
“But he can also really have this self-destructive death wish, almost a desire to get caught, because you’ve got to the point where he believes he’s invincible, but he almost needs someone to stop him and say, ‘No, you are not, go back to the playground’.”
It comes as Tatiana Fokina, wife of cell phone magnate Yevgeny Chichvarkin, said she was “afraid” of rumors about Putin’s health.
In the Parmont+ documentary Secrets of the Oligarch Wives, she said illness could mean the Russian president may not be concerned about the impact of his actions.
She said, “There are rumors that he’s sick…and I think they’re probably true, and if they’re true…that really scares me because someone who’s really sick doesn’t really care about what’s going on.” happens afterwards.”
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Russia expert Fiona Hill told Politico: “He was quite swollen.
“We know that he has complained of back problems.
“Even if it’s not something worse than that, it could be that he’s on high doses of steroids, or something else.”
The former deputy aide to former US President Donald Trump added that there appeared to be an urgency about the invasion of Ukraine, which could also be caused by personal factors.
Putin was cautious during the Covid pandemic, leading some to speculate that his immune system is already compromised and that he would be at risk if he caught the virus or another illness.
He was also photographed wrapped in a blanket during the Victory Day Parade in Moscow.