Cancer drugs ‘influenced Putin’s decisions on Ukraine’

Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking medication for thyroid cancer that may have influenced his decision-making when he decided to invade Ukraine, said a senior Danish military intelligence official.

The claim was advanced by the Berlingske based on an interview with the head of the Russian analysis team for Denmark’s national intelligence agency, Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE).

The employee was referred to only by his first name, Joakim. To the newspaper, quoted by Insidersaid that Putin was taking hormones to treat thyroid cancer in February 2022, which will likely have affected your mental capacity.

He said “delusions of grandeur” were one of the known side effects of the type of hormone treatment he believed Putin was taking at the time. “It’s not something I can say for sure, but I think it affected his decisions when he launched the war in Ukraine,” he said.

Joakim did not give details about the hormone treatment, but added that it would also have contributed to the “moon face” that Putin had at the beginning of the year.

Speculation about the Russian leader’s health has abounded since the start of the invasion, based on Russian media reports, interviews with former Western officials and claims by Ukraine. None have been supported by clear evidence, and many experts have been hesitant to draw conclusions.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Insider that Putin’s swelling raised questions about possible treatment.

Jeffrey Edmonds, former director for Russia at the National Security Council and a former military analyst for the CIA, also spoke to Insider in May, indicating that he had not seen nothing “truly credible” to suggest that Putin was ill.

The Danish official also pointed to the Berlingske that reports about the Russian leader having thyroid cancer were “definitely a good bet”, although his agency does not believe the Russian leader has a terminal illness.

Another theory is that Putin suffers from Parkinson’s disease. In March, John Hardy, a neurogeneticist at the UK’s Institute for Dementia Research, rejected these claims to Deutsche Welle.

Joakin stated that the agency has a different theory: Putin suffers from chronic pain after a series of falls and accidents. “This is a chronic pain that he has been suffering from for a long time. This is why you tend to sit down and grip things tightly. It’s to ease the pain,” he explained.

In May, Kevin Ryan, a retired United States (US) general and former Russian defense attache, told the Insider that the start of the war in Ukraine could not be blamed solely on Putin or his health.

“I don’t think this war is just Putin’s creation.. His death may affect its course, but the ruling circle that supported him will still be there,” he noted.