Putin limps during war games exercise days after he's seen with twitching legs
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Vladimir Putin once again appeared to walk with a limp as he attended a massive war games exercise.
The Russian president, 69, walked stiffly across the room to join defence minister Sergei Shoigu and military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov inside a command post at the Sergeyevsky training range.
His latest appearances have reignited speculation about his health, with separate footage showing his leg seeming to twitch uncontrollably during a rambling speech to a group of young ecologists.
Despite big losses in its six-month war in Ukraine, the drills in the east of the country and the Sea of Japan were meant to demonstrate he has huge reserves of troops and equipment.
Speaking on Wednesday, Putin insisted the country ‘has not lost anything and will not lose anything’ during the conflict.
He claimed Russia did not ‘start’ any military operations in Ukraine and was merely seeking to ‘finish’ those started in 2014 when a ‘coup’ led to the formation of an ‘illegitimate regime’ in Kyiv.
The tyrant also left observers baffled with a bizarre joke about ‘rubber bums’ during a speech to high IQ schoolchildren on Tuesday.
Conducting what the Kremlin called an ‘open lesson’, Putin appeared unable to stop his legs from twitching continuously as he delivered a heavily distorted history lesson in which he implied Ukraine and Russia should be part of the same country.
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Military chiefs said the week-long Vostok 2022 exercise involves more than 50,000 troops and 5,000 weapons units, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships across seven locations.
China is said to have sent at least 2,000 troops, 300 military vehicles, 21 planes and three ships – the first time it has sent all three branches of its military to the same exercise in Russia.
Soldiers from ex-Soviet nations Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan plus India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Algeria and Syria also took part.
As part of the manoeuvres, Russian and Chinese navies practised joint action to protect sea communications and support for ground forces in coastal areas.
The countries’ links have grown stronger since Putin invaded Ukraine in February.
China has refused to criticise Russia’s actions, blaming the US and Nato for provocation and criticising western sanctions.
In return, Russia strongly backed Beijing amid growing tensions with Washington during US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last month.
Even though Moscow and Beijing ruled out a military alliance in the past, Putin has said the prospect cannot be excluded.
He is expected to meet Xi Jinping at a summit in Uzbekistan next week.
The two presidents last met in Beijing in February, weeks before the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.
They oversaw the signing of an agreement pledging relations between the sides would have ‘no limits’.
It remains unclear whether Mr Xi knew at the time of Russia’s plan to launch what Moscow is calling ‘a special military operation’ in Ukraine.
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