Vladimir Putin's puffy face and swollen cheeks have captured attention after he was spotted at the Victory Day parade in Moscow. Fearing a coup or assassination by Ukraine, he was branded a 'deeply frightened, ageing dictator' at the large parade this weekend.
Health Concerns Resurface
Ukrainian commentator Anton Gerashchenko pointed to one unflattering image of the 73-year-old's swollen cheeks, observing: 'The face of a 'victor' and the leader of a 'superpower'. It seems sanctions have even reached Putin's Botox.' His lopsided face and 'melting wax' face have been cause for concern among his supporters and critics. In 2022, reports from inside the Kremlin said that Putin had begun to use Botox 'heavily' amid concerns for his health. Unconfirmed reports years ago, which resurfaced this year, have suggested the leader has cancer, with an FSB officer claiming he had 'no more than two to three years to stay alive'.
Scaling Back of Victory Day
Normally, Russia's Victory Day parade is a large fanfare event with tanks, nuclear warheads and thousands of soldiers marching in Moscow. This year, however, was very scaled back, with some commentators saying the smaller event shows Putin is losing his power. Alexey Kopytko said: 'At the parade, the centre of attention was not the leader of a superpower, but a tired old man with shifty eyes whom they still tolerate. And he senses it.'
Crimean Wind said: 'History shows that many dictators visibly aged before the fall of their regime or their death. Scientists link this to chronic stress, paranoid fear of losing power, and isolation, which accelerate the body's ageing.'
The Victory Day Parade, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, is Russia's largest military holiday. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche and remains a rare point of consensus in the nation's divisive history under Communist rule. Victory Day parades on Red Square have involved a broad array of heavy weapons – from armoured vehicles to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles – every year since 2008.
