Russia rejects claims President Putin fell down five stairs, soiled himself

Russian President Vladimir Putin's press office on Tuesday refuted the emerging rumours that he fell down the stairs and soiled himself.

In a lengthy Telegram post, anti-Kremlin channel General SVR claimed that Putin (70) had a hectic stressful day discussing Russia's failing economy and the war with Ukraine and that he fell off the stairs later. "At the end of the day," claimed General SVR, Putin slipped from five steps, landing on his tailbone as he fell and he "defecated involuntarily".

'This is completely untrue:' Kremlin

The Press and Information Office of the President of the Russian Federation, in an email to Newsweek, denied such speculations. 

"Regarding your request, we can say that this is completely untrue," the email read. General SVR is a nonofficial channel and the anonymous Telegram group is being operated by a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service official, according to Newsweek, who also has access to Putin and his staff. But the channel is known for its anti-Kremlin updates, and other unverified information. The channel is also known to post many times, about Russia's President Putin's alleged ill health among other unsubstantiated claims. 

Earlier, similar claims about Putin being sick circulated in May, which was later refuted by a Russian official in an interview with the French television station TF1. Putin was rumoured to be leaving meetings to receive medical treatments and claims were made that he is "constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors," raising speculations about possible health issues. There were also multiple unconfirmed reports that Putin has been undergoing a medical issue, although it remained unclear what ailment Russia's President may be battling. 

In an interview with LBC Radio on May 20, Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official also said that there has been evidence that Russian President Putin has abandoned the meetings of the security council, which are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour. "These sessions were broken up into several sections," Steele explained. "[Putin] goes out and receives some kind of medical treatment between those sections," the ex-MI6 official furthermore stressed.