The man who taught Vladimir Putin the secrets of proper body language use and has known him for 30 years says his recent behavior, which he described as “crazy” since the invasion of Ukraine, shows how much his brain abilities have deteriorated in just a few months.
Australian Alan Peas, a world-renowned body language expert and successful writer, told the British Sun that he first met 39-year-old Putin in 1991 in his hometown of St. Petersburg, just a year after the fall of the Soviet Union. Alan and his wife Barbara, who also works in the media industry, traveled to the former Soviet Union to take advantage of the hole that then existed in the local market – and provided training to politicians in former communist countries on how to be more ‘Western’ leaders.
In a report brought on the Walla! Allen’s name states that Soviet politicians were known for their aggressive speech technique and unconventional diplomacy – as in the infamous case in 1960 when at the UN General Assembly, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe and knocked it on the table to emphasize his reaction. For a speech that the Filipino representative did not like.
“Former KGB agent Putin has just been appointed deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak.” We scheduled three meetings with President Boris Yeltsin, but he never showed up. Then one of our camera crews who documented our visit told us that he knew Anatoly Sobchak, the first politically elected politician in Russia. We told him we would show him how to appear correctly on TV. He liked the idea and agreed to meet us at the famous Winter Palace of St. Petersburg. But on the day of our meeting, he could not come, so he sent his deputy in his place. One named Vladimir Putin. “
“At the time, Putin was not a well-known figure in Russia, although his past in the KGB was familiar. Allen’s first impression of him was that the 1.70-meter-tall man was much shorter than he expected, but for what he lacked in height, he made up for it in his brilliant mind.” He learned quickly, and quickly absorbed what I taught him, “he said.” I later saw him use the same body language techniques I taught him in his television appearances. “
Allen claims that Putin’s behavior has changed significantly in the last month or so. “He has gained a lot of weight, he carries a lot of fat,” he said. “Rumors among many of my friends in Russia are that he has colon cancer. Weight gain is most often a symptom of such cancer.
“Putin has always been a fitness enthusiast,” he added, “obviously he is not training right now. So rumors are circulating in Russia that he has cancer, or the onset of Parkinson’s.”
However, he says Putin’s behavior and body language are now drastically different. “He is no longer the safe and responsible ‘manager’, he is a person who keeps everyone away from him.”
Referring to Putin’s ‘absurdly long table’ in which he was photographed in recent weeks, he said his position “at the other end with his back to the wall or window” looks as if he is “expecting an attack”. He branded it as a symptom of Putin’s “growing paranoia,” and estimated that it might be a sign of someone who was too isolated during the epidemic.
“The weight gain is significant, and so is the distance. He keeps everyone away from him to the opposite side of the room. Obviously something is going on in his head. He does not want to be around people.”
In a recent speech, Putin warned that “patriots know how to find traitors” – which is very far from the cold and calculated image he used to project.
Allen, according to an article published on the Walla website, believes that his illness, whether physical or mental, can explain his actions in Ukraine. “Putin is 69 now,” he said. “He has always been a patriot. If he had previously intended to make a military move against Ukraine, it could be that with his illness he is now thinking, ‘Damn, I’m coming in.'”
Allen, who has traveled to Russia every year for the past three decades before the outbreak of the corona plague, says he last saw President Putin in 2014 at the Sochi Winter Olympics. “He looks like he did in 1991,” he said. “There has not been a substantial change in his attitude or behavior since communism fell. This change is something that has happened recently, and is related to his swollen face.”
In a recently released video, he appeared to have difficulty walking, while he was significantly “low energy” in his media appearances.
On Friday, Putin held a rally in Russia in which he waved his fist in the air and looked like a hallucinatory tyrant. Russian state television mysteriously interrupted the president’s speech while praising his troops in Ukraine, and the Kremlin claimed it was a technical malfunction.
A number of body language experts who have watched the speech have argued that the changes that have taken place in Putin indicate that he may be very ill and as his behavior becomes increasingly unsettled, speculation about Putin’s mental and physical condition will only increase.