A seemingly odd moment during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on Tuesday sparked a flurry of irony on social media about his doppelgänger, but the footage may actually have a more down-to-earth explanation.

The moment was recorded during Putin’s comments during a meeting of the Council of Strategic Development and National Projects of Russia, where the head of the Kremlin talked about the state of the Russian economy.

As you can see in the recording, Vladimir Putin seems to have forgotten which hand he wears his watch on. It seems that Anton Gerashchenko, the adviser to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, was the first to notice this moment on social networks, noting that “Putin forgot that he wears a watch on his right hand. What happened?”.

Although he is not left-handed, Putin wears a watch on his right hand, which has caused much speculation over the years. But he explained why he has been doing it since 2002 during his marathon press conference in which he takes questions from Russians.

“I wear the watch on my right hand because it’s a crown [ceasului] he doesn’t scratch my wrist. That’s all,” he explained. His answer seems to have been forgotten in the intervening years, but the same question was asked again in 2018.

“If worn on the left hand, then a spinning crown [purtatul ceasului] uncomfortable and painful. That’s why I transferred it to the other wrist, – he answered again.

Jokes about the FSB and Vladimir Putin’s double

The moment on Tuesday caused a lot of irony on social networks. For example, the NEXTA TV channel, founded by former Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich, notes: “When the FSB trains Putin’s double, which hand is the clock on?”.

“Man who looks like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seems to have forgotten that the real Putin wears a watch on his right hand” – he wrote on Twitter and journalist Ewan Macdonald, a contributor to the New Voice of Ukraine magazine and the BBC.

“Given that ‘Putin’ appears in different places at the same time, there are obvious differences in his movements, and now he forgets where ‘Putin’ has his watch, it’s time for the mainstream media to expose him: he’s using a doppelgänger or two.” He commented and Swedish economist and writer Anders Aslund, who specializes in Russia-related issues.

It will be recalled that in an interview given at the end of October last year, Ukrainian General Kyrylo Budanov stated that the head of the Kremlin used at least three doppelgangers who, according to him, underwent plastic surgery to look like Putin.

“One feature that gives them away is their height. This can be seen in the video and photo. Both gestures and body language, but also earlobes, because they are unique for each person,” said the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence in Kyiv.

Not only Ukrainians talked about the Russian president’s “doppelganger”.

In March of this year, the former leader of the Donbas separatists, Igor Girkin, spoke about the doubles that Putin uses, saying that the only moments when he is real and not a double are when the Kremlin leader appears alone or at one end of the table, away from his guests

“The real Volodymyr Volodymyrovych was at Christmas, sitting alone in the Kremlin church. unmarried! The priests were probably afraid to approach him. It was probably a sniper who warned that he would shoot if they came closer than 20 meters,” he said, among other things, on March 19.

Girkin was arrested by the FSB on July 21 after numerous criticisms and attacks against Putin and the Russian military leadership.

However, as for the new video in which Putin appears to have forgotten which hand he wears his watch on, it may have a simple explanation, as some netizens have pointed out: He may not have been trying to look at his watch. , but reach out to see the documents on the table to the left.

However, this is not entirely visible due to the way the video is cropped.

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