'Amusing, absurd': Kremlin reacts to claims Putin uses body doubles, is ill

Moscow, Oct 24: Russian President Vladimir Putin does not use body doubles, as reported in some Western media, nor is he seriously ill, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"No. There are no body doubles… This belongs to the category of absurd information hogwash, which is discussed with enviable persistence by a number of media outlets," Peskov told media persons here, RT reported.

Such claims "give (everyone in the Kremlin) nothing but a smile".

The spokesman also dismissed as fake reports that have recently emerged in the Western media, suggesting that President Putin is having heart problems.

“He is absolutely fine,” Peskov assured reporters.

On Tuesday, The Mirror newspaper in Britain ran an article, citing an anonymous Russian Telegram channel called General SVR, which alleged that President Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on Sunday. The paper also repeated the claim that the Kremlin uses body doubles for some of Putin’s public appearances, including foreign visits.

The British daily did note, however, that the Telegram channel it had quoted "never posts any solid proof behind such claims".