The (apparent) double of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been exposed as a "carpenter from Belarus," and it is even alleged that he has survived an assassination attempt. His name is Yevgeny Vasilievich, and several media outlets reported that he is Putin's "main double" who survived an attempt on his life with "poisonous substances."
According to the report, he "developed skin lesions on his upper and lower limbs and neck, and initially doctors thought it was an allergic reaction," as claimed this week by the Telegram channel General SVR – which did not provide evidence for this sensational claim. The channel, known for its bold (or at times absurd) reports regarding Putin's health, is among several sources that assert a similar-looking figure to Putin serves as his double for the 71-year-old president, a theory supported by Ukrainian military intelligence as well.
Dr. Valery Soloviev, a former professor at the Moscow Academy for Training Spies and Diplomats, described Vasilievich as a carpenter and even claimed he delivered Putin's traditional New Year's speech.
Dr. Soloviev, who his critics recently caught as a distributor of conspiracy theories, recently claimed that in October 2023, the Russian president died and has since been replaced by several doubles controlled by the former head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
According to him, after the double was poisoned, doctors gave him medication, but "when the test results became known, they urgently contacted" Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, as reported by General SVR channel.
General SVR channel claims to have internal information about what is happening inside the Kremlin. Still, it hasn't provided solid evidence and is seen by many as a source of conspiracy theories and nothing more. The anonymous account appeared in 2020, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the allegation was that former and current Russian officials managed it. Since then, he has published several baseless and unproven accusations about Putin and his government. Dr. Valeri Soloviev, who is marked as a "foreign agent" by Russia, has also made some bold claims about Putin's well-being and state.
The former professor claimed in his latest video that the carpenter who resembles Putin was trained by Moscow's secret services to play the role of the president. "Those of you, dear friends, who saw the Russian president's New Year's blessing surely noticed that it was very short," said Dr. Soloviev. "It wasn't just very short; it was one of the shortest Rosh Hashanah speeches in Putin's history... Why was it one of the shortest?
"The answer is clear. So that you wouldn't look and listen. Please don't take a look at the appearance and don't listen to the man's voice. This man, Putin's double, is called Yevgeny Vasilbich. He comes from Belarus, and he is a fourth-grade carpenter. That's the truth." Dr. Soloviev did not disclose the double's last name but referred to him by his first name, Yevgeny, and his patronymic name, Vasilbich.
Ukraine also claims it's not Putin; it's a duplicate.
Since last year, jokes referring to the double with the name "Vasilbich" have been circulating widely on social media in Russia after the senior Russian church official, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, made a mistake when addressing Putin during a meeting as "Your Eminence, Vladimir Vasilbich," before correcting himself to the president's actual name, Vladimir Vladimirovich. At the same time, Dr. Soloviev said this was Kirill's humiliation of Putin and his double in July.
The military intelligence service of Ukraine also claimed last week that the Kremlin has at least three replacements for Putin. Andriy Yosov, spokesperson for the Ukrainian HUR intelligence agency, said: "Many sources confirm this information [about Vladimir Putin and his doppelgangers]. It is no longer some news or something that needs to be proven to the world... The doppelganger technology was used in the past by the Soviet Union and is being used again now, especially By Vladimir Putin or his entourage, the people who influence the situation in the Kremlin.