Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to resign, according to a top aide who rejected media suspicions that his health might be failing.
“He is in excellent health,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, according to state-run TASS. “The president is well.”
Peskov addressed the subject following a British media report speculating that Putin is developing a case of Parkinson’s disease. Putin moved earlier this year to extend his tenure by circumventing term limits that would have required him to step down, but a report suggested that he would now leave in 2021.
“There is a family. It has a great influence on him. He intends to make public his handover plans in January,” Valery Solovei, a Moscow-based professor and Putin critic, told the Sun. That report was picked up by other outlets, including the New York Post.
Peskov derided the suggestion, saying, “There isn’t much to comment on here. This is pure nonsense.”
Putin raised the prospect of remaining in office until 2036 in March, when his legislative allies initiated a process to free him of the standard two-term limit.
“When a country is going through such upheavals and such difficulties — in our case, we have not yet overcome all the problems since the USSR,” Putin said. “This is also clear — stability may be more important and must be given priority.”
