A video claiming Putin uses body doubles has gone viral in Russia as an outlandish theory gains traction

A video has gone viral on Russian social media alleging Vladimir Putin is cheating his people by using body double kits on trips he doesn’t want to take.

It benefits from speculation that the Kremlin chief’s only trip so far to the newly conquered lands in Mariupol was made by a double, who asked, “Who rules Russia?”

It is unclear who did the filming, but it appears intended to reach Russians who rely on pro-Uber state media for their news.

The footage begs the question: “Who visited Mariupol?”

“Specialists have long noticed the differences between the Russian president’s body doubles,” she says.

The edge of Putin’s earlobe is constantly changing.

He also has a small mole on his face.

One Putin has straight wrinkles on his face, the other is small and spotty [wrinkles].

This is impossible even if he had Botox injections.

It is widely believed that Putin has had plastic surgery regularly as he has aged since he first became acting president on the last day of 1999.

Rumors of Putin’s “comrades” – who have undergone plastic surgery to resemble him – are increasingly spreading as his health deteriorates amid rumors of cancer and early-stage Parkinson’s disease.

“It is clear that the weakest double has been sent to Mariupol,” the video says in Russian.

“They forgot to put it in his jaw.”

He wonders if this “double” has fake teeth.

He concludes by asking: “After all, how many Putins do we have?

“Who rules Russia?”

Earlier, Ukraine mocked Putin for allegedly “sending someone who looked like war-torn Mariupol” on a high-security visit.

Kyiv official Anton Gerashchenko posted three photos of Putin’s chin and wondered if they belonged to the same man.

He sneered: “What’s wrong with you, Putin?”

An advisor to the Minister of the Interior posted: `It seems that lately make-up artists (that is, for the cellar man’s recent trips to occupied Crimea and Mariupol) have had to work with a low-quality copy, not a double, but her own.

“I wonder which one of them was real?”

One of the photos showed Putin, 70, a month ago at a speech to the Federal Assembly in Moscow.

Putin’s last visit was reportedly to the seaport of Sevastopol in Crimea on March 18.

A third of the footage released the next day clearly shows the dictator in warlike Mariupol.

The first photo showed his chin taut and precise.

But the photo in Sevastopol – taken from Ukraine in 2014 – incited a sagging chin, while Mariupol’s chin appears firmer but less so than in the Moscow photo.

Two former Putin aides also suggested he use doubles.

A former KGB spy with whom he studied at spy school — Sergei Zhirnov — said he had until now believed allegations of Putin using their suspicions were “conspiracy theories” — but has changed his mind.

He compared a formal speech given in Moscow by the reclusive, “skinny” and coughing ex-spy Putin on February 21 with his appearance at a pro-war rally the next day in the city.

In this case, he told Ukrainian television, “a completely different Putin appears,” with a broader face as if he had swelled up in 24 hours.

“He has a completely different shape of the eye orbits, a completely different head, completely different wrinkles — a different voice.”

Abbas Galyamov, Putin’s former speechwriter, warned that having multiple spouses poses a danger if Russia rushes into a coup because of his failed war policies.

“A double entender can intervene: you think you’ve caught Putin, but it turns out you have his replacement,” he said.

You can catch a stand-up, show him on TV signing his ‘resignation’, announce the transfer of power to the Prime Minister or to some National Salvation Committee.”

But it would be necessary for the “original Putin to prove that he is he, and not his double.”

“In short, if the doppelgänger exists, the people responsible for his movements are likely to be very important participants in the operation and the organizers of the conspiracy should not forget about them,” he said.