Putin’s suspicion of health rises from a network that loves conspiracy theories. At the same time, Ukraine is deliberately trying to undermine the image of a strong man, the researcher estimates.
Vladimir Putin is a 69-year-old Russian man whose state of health is known to be exactly one indisputable fact.
No one knows his remaining life, not even Putin himself.
This has not prevented the media from speculating on the health of the Russian president.
In March, several media outlets reported that Putin may be suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Putin’s trembling hands were enough as evidence of a neurological illness when he met with a Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
All this news is united by the fact that it has not been possible to confirm it from any reliable source. No one has presented a single waterproof piece of evidence for rumors and guesswork.
According to the Russia expert, speculation about Putin’s health is of interest to people, but at the same time it takes the debate to the sidelines.
– Less attention has been paid to the fact that the group in power in Russia has turned gray, says the research director of the Hybrid Competence Center Hanna Smith.
– The Russian leadership certainly has health problems due to aging in one, if not another. It’s not just about Putin but the future of the country as the click he leads recedes, Smith continues.
Should Vladimir Putin die tomorrow, Prime Minister Mikhail from Mishustin would become a deputy president and then elections would be held.
A line of old men would be more likely to run.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and the Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev have both already celebrated their 70th anniversary.
An insider in the Vetrein Kremlin is probably a 67-year-old defense minister Sergei Shoiguwhose poor health has also circulated rumors throughout the spring.
An old man or a young president?
Vladimir Putin’s health rumors are fueled by the fact that he has not held on to his macho magic before.
Now that the stream of shirtless bulging images is slowly fading, the conclusion is suddenly drawn to the other extreme: a man is about to die!
In this reasoning, one may forget that Putin is not very old as president.
For example Joe Biden79, and Sauli Niinistö, 73, are both older than their counterparts. However, rumors about their health are not circulated in the same way as about Putin’s well-being.
However, the rumor revolving around Putin’s health cannot be offset by Russia’s authoritarian and knowledge-loving leadership alone.
There is something else in it.
– The origins of Putin’s health news stories often date back to either the British tabloid press or Ukraine, says a researcher from the Latvian Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL) Nika Alexeyeva Over the phone.
The DFRL, which monitors online false news and propaganda, operates under the auspices of the U.S. Atlantic Council incubator.
It has been noted there that the number of vague news and false claims about Putin’s health has increased over the spring.
– In this particular case, Putin is the victim this time, Alexei says.
Ukraine is also at war through the media
In Europe, especially the highly competitive British afternoon newspapers are reluctant to report even the slightest rumors about Putin’s health. They bring website visitors – and money to the magazines.
Today, one of the key distribution channels for news is social media, where people are sensitive to breaking up exciting or self-pleasing news.
Europeans are shocked by the brutality of Russian forces in Ukraine, and now Putin’s illness would be good news for many – even if it were not quite true.
According to researcher Alexeyeva, the British press has its own Russian sources, but in many cases the stories are also picked up almost as such directly from the Ukrainian media.
This is problematic because Ukraine is a country at war with its own goals.
One of them is undermining Putin’s credibility. Public opinion can be shaped by facts but equally by lies.
– The Russian regime is based around one strong man. If this image is distorted, the whole system will start to seem unstable, Alexei estimates.
According to him, many news that was subsequently revealed to be false has originated in the Ukrainian media.
In a networked world, the news quickly spreads to the ears of decision-makers, and they can increase the rumors of the rumor by their own actions.
– Presenting such speculation can be a deliberate action aimed at undermining the credibility of a political opponent, Alexei recalls.
False, maternal, photograph
Many of Putin’s health rumors have originated online.
Last week, a couple of images of Putin began circulating on Twitter to meet wounded soldiers and local fishermen.
According to speculators, the reason for the staging would be that the Russian president would actually be terminally ill and unable to meet anyone.
Special pairs of images and exciting explanations quickly garnered over 40,000 likes.
The meritorious fact-checking of French journalists received only a small amount of attention online compared to the original rumors.
The case, which has been revealed, is not surprising to an expert in disinformation and open information.
The network attracts people to undercover police work, but not all Internet users may be undercover officers.
– Nowadays, there is a huge amount of footage, but at the same time the probative value of a single image is limited. There should always be more than one picture of what to look for, a Security Police Specialist Veli-Pekka Kivimäki says.
The media is following Finland
Veli-Pekka Kivimäki, who was previously involved in the Bellingcat research group, which unites experts in various fields, says that it is easy to reveal where and when the pictures were taken. This can be important when investigating the movements of military forces, for example.
Determining the health of Putin – or any human being – on the basis of photographs or videos alone is a whole other matter.
– Images are so affected by the camera, lighting, image quality and other such factors that it is difficult to draw any watertight conclusions about them in terms of health, Kivimäki says.
However, rumors or theories that emerge from images on social media are enough. And when they grow up big enough, the journalistic media has to react to them too.
In practice, journalists do stuff to find out the truth of the claims in some or tell readers that even such a topic speaks online.
Both the journalistic media and the Russian presidential administration, the Kremlin, have tried to eradicate the wildest rumors about Putin’s health, but over the spring, allegations of cancer have come up over and over again.
It is this recurrence of rumors that has led many to ask: Maybe there must be something behind them? No smoke without wind?
Man has managed this logic for a long time, but in recent years the connection between smoke and fire has begun to evaporate little by little.
In the 21st century, to create a thick smokescreen when all you need is a keyboard and a network connection.
You can discuss the topic until Monday at 11 p.m.