‘Everything is fine with his health’: CIA and Kremlin dismiss claims Putin is ill

CIA director William Burns joked that Putin is ‘too healthy’

The top CIA chief has dismissed claims that Vladimir Putin is suffering from bad health, amid numerous reports the Russian president has been suffering from cancer or Parkinson’s disease.

Putin’s well-being has been subject of intense scrutiny since the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine after a number of public appearances showing him puffy faced, shaking and unsteady on his feet.

The strongman leader, who turns 70 later this year, sparked yet further rumours of his ill-health when he was pictured coughing and huddled under a blanket at Russia’s Victory Day parade.

However, CIA director William Burns dismissed the claims about Putin’s supposed health issues and said Putin is committed to restoring Russia as a “great power”.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Mr Burns said: “There are lots of rumours about President Putin’s health and as far as we can tell he’s entirely too healthy.”

Seperately, the Kremlin also said on Thursday that Putin was in good health, dismissing what it called false reports he was unwell.

“Everything is fine with his health,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in reply to a question at his daily briefing.

“You know that Ukrainian information specialists, and American and British ones, have been throwing out various fakes about the state of the president’s health in recent months - these are nothing but fakes,” he added.

Mr Burns, who was also previously the US’s ambassador to Moscow gave an insight into Putin’s thoughts and motivations for the war with Ukraine.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said Putin is committed to make Russia a ‘great power’ (AFP via Getty Images)

“He is convinced that his destiny as Russia’s leader is to restore Russia as a great power. He believes the key to doing that is to recreate a sphere of influence in Russia’s neighbourhood and he cannot do that without controlling Ukraine,” he said.

However Mr Burns added that Putin’s plans were based on “profoundly flawed assumptions and some real illusions especially about Ukraine and the will to resist”.

He added: “Putin really does believe his rhetoric. I’ve heard him say this privately over the years that Ukraine is not a real country.

“Well, real countries fight back. And that’s what the Ukrainians have done.”

The spymaster said that US estimates of Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded.

“The latest estimates from the US intelligence community would be something in the vicinity of 15,000 (Russian forces) killed and maybe three times that wounded. So a quite significant set of losses,” he said.

“And, the Ukrainians have suffered as well - probably a little less than that. But, you know, significant casualties.”

It comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed it was not longer solely focusing its military efforts on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.