Putin Cancer Drugs Warped Ukraine Plan, Danish Intel Says, Reviving Debate

• A Danish intelligence formal reported Putin was getting thyroid-most cancers medication in February 2022.
• He explained to Danish media the drugs can cause “delusions of grandeur” and may have warped his wondering.
• Rumors of Putin getting unwell have abounded, but authorities say they have yet to see credible evidence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was using thyroid-most cancers medicines that may have warped his decision-generating when he resolved to invade Ukraine, a senior Danish armed forces-intelligence official stated in an interview.

The claim was documented by the Danish newspaper Berlingske primarily based on an interview with the head of the Russia evaluation crew for Denmark’s national defense intelligence agency, Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE).

The formal was referred to only by his initial identify, Joakim, citing protection reasons. He told the newspaper that Putin was getting hormones to address thyroid most cancers in February 2022, and that it likely affected his mental capability.

He stated “delusions of grandeur” are a identified side effect of the type of hormone cure that he thinks Putin was on at the time.

“It truly is not a thing I can say for particular, but I imagine it did affect his conclusions when he released the war in Ukraine,”  he instructed the newspaper.

He did not go into information about the certain hormone therapy but included that it would also have contributed to the “moon-formed confront” Putin experienced at the get started of the calendar year.

He did not give particulars of how his agency arrived to imagine that concept.

Speculation has abounded because the start out of the invasion that Putin is sick, dependent on Russian media reporting, interviews with previous Western officials, and promises by Ukraine.

None have been backed up by clear proof, and many gurus have been hesitant to draw robust conclusions.

Tabloid media and a selection of commentators have also pointed to Putin’s bloated-seeking deal with when speaking about his health. 

James Clapper, the former director of countrywide intelligence, informed Insider in May perhaps that the bloating did raise concerns about no matter whether Putin was obtaining a health-related treatment that would result in swelling. Clapper, on the other hand, said he doubted that the US intelligence group knew for sure if the Russian leader was unwell.

Jeffrey Edmonds, a previous director for Russia on the National Stability Council and an ex-CIA navy analyst, also spoke to Insider in Might and claimed that he hadn’t noticed anything at all “genuinely credible” to recommend that Putin was very seriously unwell. 

The Danish official also spoke to Berlingske in guarded language, asserting that studies of Putin owning experienced thyroid cancer were “absolutely a good guess.”

He explained that his company does not imagine that Putin has a terminal sickness.

Another concept is that Putin is suffering from Parkinson’s illness, with some citing a video clip showing Putin gripping on to a table all through a assembly with the Russian protection minister Sergei Shoigu.

John Hardy, a neurogeneticist at the Uk Dementia Research Institute, dismissed these promises though speaking to the German general public broadcaster Deutsche Welle in March. “No indication of parkinsonism in my see,” he reported.

Joakin reported his company has a different concept for the desk-gripping: that Putin is struggling from serious suffering just after a series of falls and accidents.

“This is chronic ache that he has endured from for really some time now,” he advised Berlingske. “That’s why he tends to sit and grab things tightly. It can be to ease the ache.”

A retired US brigadier typical and a former defense attaché to Russia, Kevin Ryan, explained to Insider in Could that the commence of the Ukraine war could not be attributed solely to Putin or his wellness.

“Of class everyone is heading to die, but I will not believe this war is the generation of only Putin,” Ryan explained, introducing, “His dying could possibly have an effect on its course, but the ruling circle which supported him will nevertheless be there.”

The head of the British isles armed forces reported in July that theories about Putin staying badly ill or at imminent risk of shedding ability were probably thanks to “wishful pondering” by his enemies.