For the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that, for security reasons, he was advised in the past to use a doppelganger on official dates. „The idea came up, but I have given up doubles,“ said the Russian President of the State Agency TASS.
„These were the hardest times in the fight against terrorism,“ he said, referring to the first few years after taking office in 2000. Putin said that it was specifically about appearances of the head of state in unsafe locations, said in a part of a 20-part interview series published today the State Agency.
Widely discussed in social networks
The question of whether Putin uses a double is discussed intensively in social networks, for example.
Russian state security had previously said that the use of doubles would mean that the president’s security could not be guaranteed. But that is by no means the case. In 2001, a woman asked Putin directly on a TV show whether he was using such help because of the large number of appointments. At that time, Putin only answered with a no.
For tourists in Moscow, however, there are some doppelgangers on Red Square as a photo attraction, including a Putin double, among others, and an actor of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
