Putin leaving meetings to get medical treatment, claims ex-MI6 intelligence officer

An ex-official of United Kingdom's (UK) Intelligence agency MI6 has claimed that Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been leaving meetings to receive medical treatments and that he is "constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors," raising speculations about possible health issues. Recently, there have been multiple unconfirmed reports that Putin has been undergoing a medical issue, although it remains unclear what ailment Russia's President may be battling.

It could be 'some type of illness': Ex MI6 official 

In an interview with LBC Radio on May 20, Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official said that there has been evidence that Russian President Putin has abandoned the meetings of the security council, that are shown to supposedly last for a whole hour. "These sessions were broken up into several sections," Steele explained. "[Putin] goes out and receives some kind of medical treatment between those sections," the ex-MI6 official furthermore stressed.

Steele, however, did not disclose what type of treatment Putin may be undergoing. He stopped short at explaining that it could be "some type of illness" ranging from milder to a more complicated one. 

Intelligence agency MI6's official Steele is associated with a dossier that exposed former US President Donald Trump and Russia's collusion during the 2016 Republican election campaign. The research firm that commissioned the infamous “Steele dossier” lately hit headlines for the controversial theory that the Republican denialists state attributed to a journalist linked with former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. The so-called Steele dossier had sent shockwaves around the globe as it had originated from retired British spy Steele who is known to have a giant reputation worldwide. 

Steele's sources though have battled clout of unreliability, prodding the FBI into the allegations of collusion and election interference by Russia, with due knowledge of the former Republican President Trump. Steele now makes claims that Russia's authoritarian leader Putin is struggling with "some type of illness" as he continues to wage a fierce invasion of the Ukrainian territory. Putin has repeatedly accused Ukraine's far-right 'neo Nazi' militia group Azov Battalion of committing genocide against Russian speaking population in the contentious Donbass region. 

Steele via his dossier, that landed like a bombshell, had exposed that the Trump administration may have been in some sort of a "blackmail" from Russians, a claim that Republican conspiracy theorists labelled a scandalous attempt to bring former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Robert Mueller, down. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find sufficient evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia or was behind the obstruction of justice in the 2016 election in Washington.

The wide-ranging 'Mueller report' that questioned the Steele Dossier was submitted to Attorney General William Barr and was thoroughly reviewed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. After an investigation, the Special Counsel in its 4-page summary, in fact, did say that Russia interfered with the US election, but “did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it." 

Steele on Friday echoed Ukraine's head of military intelligence's remarks made to British broadcaster Sky news. Major General Kyrylo Budanov also similarly claimed that Putin has been battling an illness. These claims could not be verified independently. "Putin is in a very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick," Budanov told the network. Steele also separately told the broadcaster that he has been "hearing from sources in Russia and elsewhere" that Putin is, in fact, "quite seriously ill." "It's not clear exactly what this illness is—whether it's incurable or terminal, or whatever. But certainly, I think it's part of the equation," the ex-British intelligence official said. "There's increasing disarray in the Kremlin and chaos, in fact, that there's no clear political leadership coming from Putin, who is increasingly ill," he told LBC Radio.