A classified U.S. intelligence report says Russian President Vladimir Putin underwent treatment in April for advanced cancer, according to Newsweek.
The news outlet attributed the information to three U.S. intelligence leaders who have read the report. The report said Putin seems to have re-emerged after undergoing the treatment.
The information reportedly came from the intelligence community's fourth comprehensive assessment of Putin's health. The assessments also noted there was an attempt to assassinate Putin in March.
Newsweek said its unnamed sources are from the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The third one is a retired Air Force senior officer.
All of them caution that Putin's isolation makes it difficult for U.S. intelligence to precisely assess Putin's status and health.
"What we know is that there is an iceberg out there, albeit one covered in fog," said the DNI sources.
"One source of our best intelligence, which is contact with outsiders, largely dried up as a result of the Ukraine war," says the DIA senior official. "Putin has had few meetings with foreign leaders," the official said. "Putin's isolation has thus increased levels of speculation."
And one of the senior intelligence officials told Newsweek, "Putin's grip is strong but no longer absolute. The jockeying inside the Kremlin has never been more intense during his rule, everyone sensing that the end is near."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Putin is not seriously ill despite claims by journalists, news outlets, and Russian oligarchs that he might have cancer or is otherwise terminally ill.
Lavrov's comments came before the Newsweek report.
"President Putin appears in public every day. You can see him on the screens, read his speeches, listen to his speeches," Lavrov told French media TF1. "I don't think sane people can discern any sort of symptom of disease in this man."
A report published Sunday by the Sunday Mirror quoted an officer from the FSB, Russia's main intelligence service, who claimed Putin, 69, was given three years to live.
The officer described Putin's condition as a "severe form of rapidly progressing cancer" and said he had "no more than two to three years left."
Additionally, he said, Putin was losing his sight and suffering from headaches.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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