Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had been offered the chance to use body doubles but denied ever using one.
Putin, who has ruled Russia either as president or prime minister for more than two decades, said in an interview on Thursday that theories about his use of one or multiple doppelgangers were untrue. Some believe he has human fill-ins to protect his safety.
A Russian journalist showed the enigmatic leader a list of internet searches related to the theories and asked a simple question: “Are you real?”
Putin replied, “Yes,” before saying that he has never used a body double. The 67-year-old president did say he was given the opportunity to use one in the early 2000s when Russia was fighting a war in Chechnya.
“I declined these body doubles. [The offer] was during the most difficult periods of the fight against terrorism,” he said.
Putin was first elected partly because of his hard-line position against Chechen separatists. The Second Chechen War began in 1999 and evolved into an insurgency, pitting Islamist militant groups aligned with Chechnya against Russia, with attacks including suicide bombings.
During the interview, Putin also revealed that he does not own a cell phone and instead has access to an official phone that can be connected to whomever he wants.
