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Paris Match: Putin’s guards collect his urine and stool on foreign trips to conceal his ailments

The Insider

Russian Federal Guard Service (FSO) agents accompanying Vladimir Putin abroad collect the president’s urine and fecal matter and deliver them to Moscow, according to Paris Match. They are probably doing this to conceal information about Putin’s possible illnesses.

According to the magazine, at one time feces were exported in October 2019 during Putin’s visit to Saudi Arabia. “We learned from indirect sources in the Middle East that this delicate mission was conducted under the control of the FSO,” the publication says. An officer was to place Putin’s feces in bags specially designed for this purpose so as not to leave traces and deliver it all to Russia in a special suitcase. In 2017, according to the writers, during Putin’s visit to France, the president’s excrement was also collected. The FSO, meanwhile, must ensure that embassy employees who are aware of those operations keep the information in strict secrecy.

In April, Proyekt published an investigation into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health, which revealed he regularly takes baths with reindeer antlers and has his own medical team to accompany him on all trips. Putin’s most frequent companions are otolaryngologists Alexei Shcheglov and Igor Yesakov, and surgeon Yevgeny Selivanov. Shcheglov flew to Sochi 59 times in four years and stayed with Putin for 282 days, Selivanov did so 35 times and stayed for 166 days. Selivanov is a surgeon specializing in oncology who had defended his dissertation entitled “Peculiarities of diagnosis and surgical treatment of thyroid cancer in elderly and senile patients.”

Baza wrote in February that people close to the president have to submit stool samples several times a week due to “heightened security measures”. According to Baza, due to quarantine restrictions, many employees are forced to spend almost the entire year under quarantine.