– You have probably heard that Putin has many doubles who work in his place, while he himself sits in a bunker. It’s another lie, Putin’s spokesman said. Dmitrij Peskov Photo: SPUTNIK / Reuters Social media is boiling, and serious Russian journalists in exile are discussing on their YouTube channels. Holy shit, it hit me. It is not more than a couple of weeks ago that I said no to talking about those very rumors on the radio. I thought they were too twisted and only believed by a tiny minority. But I could be wrong. When the president’s own press spokesman comes out and denies it, it must be because the ripples from the wake of the rumors have reached all the way into the Kremlin’s corridors. Photo analysis The latest spate of speculation started in connection with the president’s surprise visit to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March. A photo analysis that German Bild-Zeitung published on April 21 is often referenced on Russian social media. There, a picture of the real “Kremlin Putin” is compared with a picture of Putin in Mariupol. The newspaper points to several differences, among others these: That Kremlin-Putin has high cheekbones, while Mariupol-Putin has a more flowing face. The picture shows that the cheeks hang. The lips of Kremlin-Putin are wider. The nose of Mariupol-Putin is more bulky. The ear shape is not exactly the same, and the distances between the eyes, mouth and ears are not identical. Bild also points out that Kremlin-Putin wears super expensive shoes, while the alleged copy often appears in cheap versions with heels. Ukraine takes advantage of the speculation Key people in the Ukrainian power apparatus have risen to the occasion. The Minister of the Interior’s adviser, Anton Gerashenko, already tweeted on 20 March: “who do you think is the real one?”. With two of the same photos that Bild published later. Photo: @Gerashchenko_en/Twitter Several people have since pointed out that one of the photos was taken three years ago, not in February this year, as the tweet states. Putin was younger and perhaps just more rested. The head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, recently commented on Putin’s second visit to Russian-occupied territories on April 17. According to the Kremlin, this was a surprise visit. He shook hands with many officers. Putin shakes hands with an officer in the Kherson region on 17 April. Photo: AFP – Well, for one thing, Putin wasn’t there. It is a well-known fact, said Danilov. Fact? Well, not undisputed. But Danilov pointed out that those who want to meet the real Putin must spend 10 to 14 days in quarantine first. That is why there are more people than Ukrainian Danilov who place more importance on differences in manners than on pictures. Germ phobia and behavior YouTube last Sunday. A veteran Russian journalist branded a foreign agent discussed the pros and cons of doppelgangers. Julia Latynina has written for Novaya Gazeta and was for years a super popular presenter on the Ekho Moskvy radio channel. Both are now decommissioned in Russia. Journalist Julia Latynina (th) is in conversation with presenter Mark Fejgin Fejgin is a lawyer and is known, among other things, as a defender of Russian opposition parties. Photo: Screenshot from YouTube Everything about appearance can be changed through plastic surgery, Latynina begins. But how is it that Putin, who provided many meters of space between himself and the French president and between himself and Defense Minister Shoigu, suddenly goes on a spontaneous trip and greets people in Mariupol? He stands close together and chats with residents of a restored block of flats. Putin with residents of Mariupol outside a newly restored apartment block. March 19th. Photo: AFP By way of contrast, Latynina points to the video of Putin receiving fresh foreign ambassadors on April 5. Norwegian Robert Kvile was one of them. But Putin took none of the ambassadors by the hand and kept a firm distance. He hardly ever meets the government members physically, but leads the meetings as an authoritarian class leader with the ministers gathered on a big screen. Putin kept his distance when he met newly appointed ambassadors in the Kremlin’s Alexander Hall on April 5. Photo: Reuters Nobody knows for sure On the other hand; how can someone who is so afraid of microbes take the risk of letting a doppelgänger travel with a TV camera in tow and meet several people who know the original? Argues veteran journalist Latynina against herself. Suddenly, a situation can arise which reveals that “Putin” is not Putin. In the past, famous Soviet doppelgangers were not given such demanding assignments. Stalin’s doppelganger Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin had four doppelgangers, according to one of them. Felix Dadayev only wrote his autobiography in 2008, 55 years after Stalin’s death. Stalin’s double, Felix Dadayev on the left, the original th Dadayev was 20 years younger and had to be made up heavily when he was going to act as a double. Dadayev was originally an actor, illusionist and musician. During World War II, he was enlisted to entertain the Soviet forces. He was seriously injured, and the family was told that he had died. Then the learning of gait patterns and facts began. Dadayev was sent by plane to Yalta to negotiate peace with Roosevelt and Churchill in February 1945. Stalin could thus fly in without anyone noticing. He made it possible for the paranoid Stalin to live more securely, but never informed his own family that he was alive. Fables and rumors In 1987 I became acquainted with a renowned Soviet economic journalist. He was convinced that there were frozen copies of the country’s then leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov carries the portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev in connection with the funeral in Moscow, September 3, 2022. Photo: AP He also claimed that he himself had been in one of the freezing laboratories near Moscow – and as an experiment had been frozen. In his frozen state, he is said to have heard the voices of both Stalin and Hitler. He repented. Because it had become more difficult to get involved in Gorbachev’s reform policy, perestroika, he admitted. I don’t know how he ended up. One of my current friends is convinced that Putin has at least one doppelganger. She says he and those around him dare not do otherwise. They need time to think about if the real Putin should become seriously ill or die. Bunkers before and now And then there was Putin as a sort of hermit in a bunker. My friend also thinks that he stays underground a lot of the time. One of the many tunnels in Bunker 22, just off Taganka Square in Moscow. It was top secret at the time. Now it is a museum. But news refused to film in the bunker. – You are in NATO, was the reply. Photo: Gro Holm / news This Tuesday I went to see what the bunkers were like before. After the atomic attack on Hiroshima, Stalin gave the order to build more solid command centers underground. They should be able to withstand a nuclear attack. Bunker number 42 was completed in 1956 and was used until 1986. The guide in what is now a museum 65 meters underground showed how a nuclear missile with the US as its target could be fired from the command room. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the world was closer to nuclear war than ever, 600 people worked around the clock in the bunker. The room that was used as a communications center during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Photo: Gro Holm / news They had their own entrance and exit to Taganka metro station. Above the hill stood a building with only one purpose, to hide the descent to the bunker. There was enough food and drink for the Soviet Union’s civilian and military leaders and auxiliaries to last thirty days. A separate room was set up for communication. In 1986, new bunkers were completed in a number of Moscow’s suburbs. They were 120 meters deep, the guide said. – Does the current management have anywhere to operate from, asked a woman. – Of course, said the uniformed guide. They are even deeper. But I can get 15 years in prison for telling more, he added. The guide shows a model of a P36 nuclear missile. A later version of the missile could carry up to 10 warheads across the Atlantic to hit the United States. In NATO terminology, it was called the SS-18 Satan. I’m not at all sure if he really knows. And he probably doesn’t know if Putin is already using one of them while doppelgangers take care of less important things in the daylight. But according to the Kremlin, there is only one Putin. Nobody Does It Better.
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