Rumors continued to fly Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to show up at his annual ice hockey game, instead choosing to send a video message that some claim reveals “mysterious blotches” on his face. As RedState has reported, Putin may have gone under the knife last week for cancer surgery, and there have been many videos circulating recently purporting to show Putin’s strange behavior.

Putin seen with blotches on cheeks after skipping ice hockey game pic.twitter.com/4qMAmZkiDy

— KT "Special Intelligence Operation" (@KremlinTrolls) May 11, 2022

From the NY Post:

Putin pulled out of the Night Hockey League game in which he had been “expected” to compete and sent a video message while at Sochi, the Black Sea resort where the match was scheduled to take place, East2West News reported. Adding to speculation about the strongman’s health were dark blotches on his cheeks that may have been masked by makeup. “I wish you good luck in your ice battles and all the best,” Putin said in his message. “And as they say, ‘May the best win.’”

The game is known to be beloved to Putin, and he once scored a laughable eight goals. I’m sure the defenders were playing real tough against him.

This video of Vladimir Putin scoring 8 goals in a hockey game in Russia makes a lot more sense when you know that the opposing goalie was Igor Shesterkin pic.twitter.com/jMsjlgFUs5

— Eddie P (@eddie_p_412) May 10, 2022

For him to miss it is a big deal because he places a lot of emphasis on his machismo and loves to appear shirtless, catch enormous fish on camera and just generally act the tough guy.

Also causing concern was Vlad’s use of a thick green blanket at Tuesday’s Victory Day Parade, where he delivered a tepid speech. He was caught on camera draping the blanket over his legs, making it look like he was relaxing in a nursing home. My colleague streiff did a thorough write-up of the parade and the speech, which wasn’t nearly as grandstanding and militant as many expected.

Tuesday, a post appeared on what Jeff Charles calls “a shadowy Telegram channel called “General SVR,” believed to be run by a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service lieutenant with the pseudonym “Viktor Mikhailovich.” It read:

Putin has been in a depressed state of late, and preparations for the upcoming surgical operation, which should take place in the near foreseeable future, play an important role here… the risks for Putin are high, and apparently this is the main reason that in his speech the president decided to bypass all sensitive topics, smoothing the agenda as much as possible, fearing to cause unnecessary upheavals with overly emotional and decisive rhetoric… Putin now has two main problems: how not to die under the surgeon’s knife and how not to wake up after the operation already actually overthrown. The unenviable position of a half-corpse.

You’ll note that “General SVR” indicates that Putin’s operation is upcoming; as I mentioned other news outlets including our own reported that it occurred last week. Possibly there are more surgeries to come, but we can’t know because Russia isn’t exactly open with its information. Belarusian President and Putin puppet Alexander Lukashenko tried to gaslight the world  back in March regarding the rumored health problems:

“The West, and you, should get this stupidity, this fiction out of your heads,” Lukashenko said in an interview with TBS, a Japanese television channel. “Putin is absolutely fit, he’s in better shape than ever,” he said, adding, “This is a completely sane, healthy person, physically healthy — he’s an athlete. As they say here — he’ll catch a cold at all our funerals,” Lukashenko continued.

What might be ailing the strongman? Ideas floated have included Parkinson’s disease, bowel cancer, thyroid cancer, even dementia. Speculation of course has been swirling around President Joe Biden’s mental health for months — if not years. It’s a truly terrifying prospect that we could have two world leaders with serious health conditions. What could go wrong?