Russian minister 'accidentally calls Vladimir Putin his body-double's name' in extraordinary slip-up

A Russian minister was caught accidentally referring to Vladimir Putin by the name of his alleged body-double.

Dmitry Patrushev, the Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture, seemed to call Mr Putin "Pal Laich" in a video published by the Kremlin.

Pal Laich is not a name in Russian, but some theorists believe it is a nickname for Pavel Nikolaevich, the presumed identity of an alleged body double.

In the Kremlin's official transcript, Mr Patrushev's slip-up has been corrected to "Vladimir Vladimirovich", Mr Putin's correct first name and patronymic.

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Kommersant, a pro-Kremlin newspaper, has admitted confusion over the comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister.

It wrote: "It seems that no one can explain what it was. Maybe he got overstressed.

"Maybe he wanted to say something about something, but he caught himself."

There have been rumours for years that body doubles are used to ensure the Russian leader's personal security.

Mr Putin claimed six years ago there was a plan drawn up in the early 2000s for him to use body doubles, but he rejected the plan.

But in 2022, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, alleged the Russian President regularly used the doppelgangers.

"There are at least three people [body doubles] who periodically appear," he said.

Mr Budanov has claimed the former KGB agent's height and shape of his ears had changed throughout the years.

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Others have claimed the real Mr Putin has died, or is in a bunker, and is running the country through the use of lookalikes.

In 2023, Kremlin spin doctor Dmitry Peskov denied rumours of body doubles.

"You have probably heard that he has very many doubles who work instead of him while he sits in a bunker. Yet another lie," he said.

Mr Peskov added: "His energy can only be envied. His health can, God willing, only be wished for. Of course, he doesn't sit in any bunkers."

In 2024, Meduza, a Russian opposition website, failed to find any significant differences between photographs of the alleged lookalikes and the real Mr Putin.

Their software analysis determined the images were between 99.6 per cent and 99.9 per cent likely to be the Russian President.

The Deputy Prime Minister, the son of prominent presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev, is not the only Russian figure to refer to Mr Putin by the wrong name.

The same year, Mr Putin was referred to by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church as "Vladimir Vasilyevich", causing some social media users to ask if "they know something we don't".

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