Don't Forget, Technically Vladimir Putin is Dead
- Fred
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Editor's Note: We don't really believe that.
I don't appreciate how Donald Trump and JD Vance treated the leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, but that is neither here nor there. You may agree with me, you may disagree.
But Donald Trump needs to treat Putin with a little bit more urgency. Why? Ahhh-
During the height of the Covid Crisis, Donald Trump was diagnosed with the virus and whisked away, by helicopter, to Walter Reed Hospital. It was the final stretch before the 2020 election and he was campaigning hard.
To his credit, Trump never disappeared. He gave updates on Social Media and was back campaigning as soon as his doctors allowed. Even when Donald Trump was out of office, he stayed in the public eye, it was like he was campaigning for 4 years, throughout every single Covid Wave that washed across America.
Vladimir Putin, too, was out and active, aggressively promoting the Sputnik Vaccine during Russia's first years fighting Covid. Right before the Beijing Olympics though, Putin started to pull back on his schedule. Putin was in Beijing in February of 2022, but the normally vigorous Putin was "caught sleeping" during the Opening Ceremonies, then jetted back to Russia and disappeared.
Now your argument would be that Putin was planning and, then implementing, the Invasion of Ukraine. For a year and a half? In September of 2023, sightings of Putin were rare, strictly choreographed, and were released to the public after they occurred. So infrequent were Putin's appearances, 500,000 Russians were following the SVR General Channel on Telegram, which detailed Putin's weakened state.
Why didn't the American Press question why Putin wasn't giving live press conferences? Because the President of the United States, Joe Biden, had stopped giving press conferences too.
In January of 2023, Zelensky himself had questioned if Putin was alive.
On October 26, 2023, the SVR General Channel announced that Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, had passed away.
Why would such an outlandish statement gain ground? Because in August of 2023, Putin was caught using a body double:
Believe it or not, I don't think that Putin using a body double was all that nefarious. I think that he had tired of doing some of the more mundane responsibilities associated with his job. The buzz became so loud that Putin was dead, that the Russian Government was forced to give an official, on-record statement that their President was alive.
Such a statement was almost unprecedented in Modern Russian History.
Now did I believe Putin was really dead? I did not.
Did I believe Putin was using a body double? I know he was.
What does that have to do with Donald Trump in 2025? Everything.
If Donald Trump is serious about peace, and gives Putin everything that he wants in the peace negotiations, Crimea, the land bridge, and no NATO membership, and Putin still hems and haws about the peace process? Trump needs to drag Putin's ass to the table.
Of course Donald Trump doesn't have the power to physically do that, but if he rolled out of bed tomorrow morning and questioned if Putin was ALIVE, that would motivate the Leader of Russia to, minimally, acknowledge his existence.
And if Trump went on a diatribe about seeing Putin during the first Presidency, but not so far in this presidency, that would expediate the process. If Trump continued to ramble on that he had heard many rumors about the Russian President's death, and that he looked forward to meeting him face-to-face to dispel such outlandish claims, that would goad Putin into an in-person meeting. It would be hard for Putin to turn away Trump under those specific circumstances. That will only re-ignite some of Putin's internal problems.
Today is the "deadline" for the process from America's End. Let's see if Trump walks away from the process, or tries to provoke Putin.
