Kathrine Frich
He gets a lot of help behind the scenes.
Growing older is something most people simply accept as a fact of nature.
You blow out the candles, take your medicine, and hope for the best.
But when you run a global superpower, the rules of biology look a little different.
A private medical army
Vladimir Putin celebrated his 74th birthday in early October. Reaching that age is a rare milestone for men in his country.
A Russian boy born today can expect to live to about 68, according to United Nations data. The president has comfortably beaten those odds.
He gets a lot of help behind the scenes according to Onet. An investigation by the Russian outlet Proekt found that an expanding team of presidential hospital doctors travels with him to Sochi.
The medical crew grew from five specialists in 2016 to nine by 2019. The Kremlin consistently rejects rumors about his health, even as reports circulate about his use of deer antler extract baths.
Searching for forever
Last year, an open microphone picked up a highly unusual conversation. The Russian leader was talking to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He suggested through an interpreter that organ transplants might allow people “even to achieve immortality.”
Ordinary citizens face a much harsher reality. A 15-year-old Russian boy has a 30 percent chance of dying before he turns 60, according to UN mortality statistics.
That figure places the nation behind several developing countries, despite its massive oil wealth.
The shrinking population
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is wiping out an entire generation of young men. Mediazona and the BBC reported at least 259,000 war casualties.
And the danger follows soldiers home. Returning veterans have killed at least 551 people, according to the independent website Verstka.
Other problems remain deeply rooted. Drug-related deaths passed 10,000 recently, and the country struggles with an HIV crisis.
Alexander Shuvayev, a regional governor, recently praised the president for helping locals “to live and work in the most difficult conditions.”
Hiding the numbers
If people were actually living longer, the government would surely advertise it.
Instead, state officials quietly pulled the plug. The statistics agency Rosstat suddenly stopped publishing demographic data for 2024.
Public records of purchases made by the presidential clinic have also vanished.
Now, international pressure is building. The United States is demanding answers from Moscow about a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak in the city of Irkutsk, Newsweek reported.
