Amid swirling rumors about the apparently ailing health of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian opposition media outlet General SVR claims that Putin will go out of sight soon as he undergoes surgery for abdominal cancer.

When the 69-year-old Putin is under the knife, and over the course of his subsequent recovery, the leadership of the country and war in Ukraine will be handed over to Nikolai Patrushev, a shadowy 70-year-old who is believed to be a key architect of the war in Ukraine.

General SVR quoted an unnamed former Kremlin insider as saying: “Putin has discussed that he will be undergoing medical procedures.”

The source also said that “doctors insist that he needs an operation, but the date has not yet been determined… He will have surgery and while he is incapacitated, former spymaster Patrushev will take the reigns.

“What if, all of a sudden, Putin manifests particularly severe health problems?” the source wondered aloud. “We know very well that he has cancer and Parkinson’s disease, as we have said may times. It was possible to contain it for some time, but now the course of the disease is progressing.”

While the date of Putin’s claimed surgery is unknown, it is unlikely to take place before May 9th, when the Russian president is set to preside over massive Red Victory Day celebrations, which commemorate the defeat of Adolph Hitler.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that Putin could use the celebrations as the time and place to announce a massive final push into Ukraine, and that he would “declare… that we are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilize the Russian people.”

Source: (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)