Reports out of Europe have reignited one of the stranger rumours about Russian President Vladimir Putin — that he travels with a team tasked with collecting his bodily waste during overseas trips, allegedly to prevent foreign intelligence agencies from gaining insight into his health.
The claim, published by French investigative journalists Régis Gente and Mikhail Rubin, suggests that members of Russia’s Federal Protection Service (FPS) have for years accompanied Putin abroad and discreetly gathered his excrement in sealed bags before transporting it in a dedicated briefcase back to Moscow.
The practice, according to the journalists, is designed to ensure that no foreign power can analyse the waste for medical information. Tests on such material could theoretically reveal clues about illnesses, treatments, or underlying conditions of a leader — all data considered strategically sensitive.
Farida Rustamova, a Russian journalist and former BBC reporter, supported the claims, stating she had spoken with sources who confirmed the practice has been in place since the earliest days of Putin’s presidency in 1999.