Kremlin Used 'Deepfake' Video To Hide Putin's Declining Health After Surgery: Report

The health of Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly worsened so much that he has undergone surgery to get rid of fluids from his abdomen on Thursday, forcing him to be "deep faked" into a meeting to make it look like he is currently healthy.

The Telegram channel “General SVR,” which claims to be run by a former Russian spy, gave an unverified claim that Putin was undergoing surgery on Thursday night and that his participation in a recent meeting with Russia’s security council was deep faked to hide his surgery and recovery, according to the New York Post.

As the war on Ukraine continues, many people have been posting questions about Putin’s health, with rumors saying that he has thyroid cancer or that he has been bathing in the blood of deer antlers in an attempt to push away the possibility of death.

Many also believe that the rumors of illness linked to Putin have been nothing but a war propaganda effort from Ukraine and its allies, as experts like Matthew Olney, the director of Cisco’s cybersecurity arm Talos say that Russia’s cyber warfare has been weakened so far, the Financial Review reported.

“We’ve seen basically what we estimate to be B and C tier actors – still Russian sponsored, either directly or financially motivated and compensated,” Olney said. “But we’re not seeing those first-class cyber threats targeted on Ukraine.

“It makes sense because Russia wildly underestimated Ukraine across the board, both in terms of kinetic operations and in terms of cyber operations.”

Olney also commented that the cyber warfare efforts of Ukraine have been more organized than Russia’s, with a volunteer-led cyber militia coordinating together through Telegram to attack different targets and infrastructure of the Russian government that would be considered off-limits by the Ukrainian government.

“It could potentially either impact everyday Russians in a way that would be unfortunate and undeserved, but also could potentially confuse decision-making in terms of misunderstanding who [authorized] what,” Olney said. “The world would be a slightly safer and less confusing place if that wasn’t happening.

“But on the flip side, I’m not going to say that the Ukrainian people don’t have a right to, like, defend themselves in any way possible.”