Putin’s repeated stumbling over words during Sochi speech raises eyebrows

Vladimir Putin stumbled over or mispronounced words 44 times in the course of an hour-long speech he gave at an annual discussion forum on Thursday, Russian independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported on Friday.

Speaking in the southern city of Sochi to a carefully selected group of experts from the Valdai International Club, a forum on Russian foreign policy, Putin frequently lost his place as he read his speech from a piece of paper, slipping up 10 times in the first 20 minutes alone.

Mozhem Obyasnit counted a total of 44 mistakes in the hour-long speech, during which Putin corrected himself 29 times, left long gaps between words 12 times and mispronounced words three times, though the outlet noted that he spoke more fluently once he stopped reading and spoke off the cuff.

Putin has been known to stumble over his words before, and fumbled the name of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the first time at the BRICS summit in Kazan last month.

Putin, who is 72, admitted to having regular eye tests in 2020, though he doesn’t wear glasses, Mozhem Obyasnit continued, although a 2019 photograph shows him carrying paperwork typed in enormous 72-point font.

While Kremlin-watchers may like to speculate on Putin’s health, rumours that he has Parkinson’s disease and a host of other ailments appear to be based on very little substance. Indeed, the germ-conscious dictator appears to be in fairly rude health, having taken extraordinary measures to avoid infection during the Covid-19 pandemic, and with even his well-documented cough no longer in evidence in Sochi.