Is Putin suffering with 'roid rage'? Spies suggest 'bloated' appearance could be drugs side effect Sunday March 13th, 2022 at 9:10 AM

Is Putin suffering with 'roid rage'? Spies suggest 'bloated' appearance could be drugs side effect

Sunday March 13th, 2022 at 9:10 AM

News | Mail Online

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Vladimir Putin is suffering from a brain disorder caused by dementia, Parkinson’s disease or ‘roid rage’ resulting from steroid treatment for cancer, intelligence sources have claimed.

Citing sources close to the Kremlin, senior figures in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States – believe there is a physiological explanation for the Russian president’s globally reviled decision to invade Ukraine.

The intelligence community is sharing a growing number of reports about 69-year-old Putin’s ‘increasingly erratic behaviour’, combined with a bloated appearance in recent footage – and the absurd distance he insists on keeping from visitors to the Kremlin.

A security source said: ‘It is only human sources that can offer you the sort of rich picture that we have of Putin’s psyche.

‘There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him.’

The source said this failure to think clearly was being compounded by the lack of a ‘negative feedback loop’, with the Russian leader ‘simply not being briefed’ on elements of failures with the invasion.

In another grim day in Ukraine yesterday:

• Kyiv became a fortress ahead of an expected onslaught, with Russian forces now within 15 miles of the capital’s centre;
• Russian shelling of besieged cities including Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Dnipro and Sumy continued as one governor said the South-Eastern city of Volnovakha has been destroyed;
• Putin rebuffed a new appeal for a ceasefire but, in a glimmer of hope, negotiators discussed ‘concrete’ proposals for a peace deal for first time as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was willing to negotiate, but would not surrender nor accept ultimatums;
• Zelensky revealed 1,300 Ukrainian troops have died in the war so far, but claimed the Russian army has suffered its largest losses in decades, with an estimated 6,000 deaths;
• Moscow threatened the West that any military shipments to Ukraine will be seen as ‘legitimate targets’, prompting fears the conflict could dramatically escalate;
• Putin was urged to lift the siege of the southern city of Mariupol where up to 1,500 civilians have died;
• Residents took to the streets of the occupied city of Melitopol to protest against the abduction of its mayor by Russian forces;
• Intelligence sources claimed Putin may be suffering from dementia, Parkinson’s disease or ‘roid rage’ resulting from steroid treatment for cancer.