One of the most controversial leaders of the modern era, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation has been reportedly suffering from abdominal cancer for the past 18 months. As per rumours he has also shown signs of Parkinson’s disease and schizoaffective disorder which carries symptoms like hallucinations and mania.

As per the word circling around based on a narrative given by a famous telegram channel “General SVR”, the Russian President will soon go through surgery in order to cure himself of cancer. Initially, the surgery was planned for the second week of April, but had to be postponed owing to Putin’s recent adventures in Ukraine. The exact dates of the surgery are still not known but the president is now left with no other option than to undergo the knife, the sooner the better for him.

As per the channel which itself is speculated to be managed by a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service lieutenant, “Putin is unlikely to agree to hand over power for a longer period of time.” However, till such time that Putin remains incapable of performing his duties which may take anywhere from two to three days, a former KGB spy and later FSB chief Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev will be taking the charge. Patrushev is currently the secretary of the Russian Security Council and one of the brains behind planning the entire Ukraine conflict.

Given the scenario, according to the Russian constitution in such conditions power should pass to the Prime Minister but still Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was neglected and Patrushev is being considered solely because he is a close confidant and a true Putin loyalist. The moderator of the telegram channel even claimed that “Patrushev is an outright villain. He is no better than Vladimir Putin. Moreover, he is a more cunning, and I would say, more insidious person than Vladimir Putin. If he comes to power, Russians' problems will only multiply.”

Patrushev is the son of a Soviet Naval officer who later also became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Patrushev worked as the head of the anti-corruption and anti-smuggling unit of KGB. After the Soviet fall out, he quickly rose from being the deputy chief of the FSB's Organization and Inspection Department in 1995 to the Director of FSB in 1999 and remained in office till 2008 after which he became the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia.

The former FSB head is a staunch believer of one Ukraine and Russia and accused America and Europe of having a neo-Nazi ideology in terms of Ukraine. He said, "using their henchmen in Kyiv, the Americans, in an attempt to suppress Russia, decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide essentially a single people."

Although reports and visuals of the deteriorating health and expected surgery of Vladimir Putin are widespread now, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby refused to confirm the report by saying that he had seen “nothing that could help us corroborate that.”