Newsweek: Putin Suspected Of Dementia

The head of the Russian Federation was delirious on the air.

During another meeting in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin got confused about the age of the child. It caused rumors of his senile dementia in the network, Newsweek draws attention.

The published footage from the meeting of the group "Russia - Land of Opportunity" shows Putin talking with inmate Ivan Shtokman, who told the Russian president about his career from working in a bakery to owning an IT company.

Shtokman recounted how his success in a management competition helped him become deputy mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, where his responsibilities included information technology, tourism and business development.

Putin pretended to be impressed by the story, then turned it into a parable for what Russia is going through. "Finally, you come to the key thing in this quest... loyalty to this country. This is a struggle for the future of our children and your children," the dictator said.

Putin then asked how old his children were, to which Shtokman replied, "The youngest is nine and the oldest is 23." But Putin misunderstood the ages, saying: "Your youngest is three years old."

The video was posted on Twitter by blogger Ulyana Yapparova. In the comments, users began to joke about Putin's mental health.

One subscriber wrote that Putin "stares at the ceiling" and "slowly mumbles about looking for a place in the country" is "abnormal. Another noted, "He can't hear people at all." A third user concluded it was "dementia," and in a separate tweet, someone wrote "Alzheimer's." The correspondence followed another lively online discussion about Putin this week, when the Russian president appeared to react lightly to news from Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev about the deaths of soldiers in Ukraine.

After Kobzev spoke of soldiers from his region who had died in Ukraine, Putin replied, "Send them my greetings. This was compared to the "Hail to the dead" meme by Ukrainians in response to the liquidation of Russian occupiers in Ukraine.