Hundreds of thousands of Russians turned to the popular search engine Yandex to seek information about President Vladimir Putin's health, driven by unfounded rumors of a cardiac arrest that had garnered international attention. The surge in search queries followed the speculative reports.
The investigative website Agentstvo unveiled compelling findings. Search terms such as "dead Putin," "dying Putin," and "Putin died" collectively garnered over 417,000 impressions. These queries concerning Putin's alleged demise ranked among the top 12 searches related to the term "Putin."
The source of the health-related rumor, which the Kremlin vehemently refuted as a "hoax," could be traced back to a Telegram post by the Russian gossip channel General SVR on October 26. This post claimed that Putin had passed away at his Valdai residence at "20:42 p.m. Moscow time," which supposedly triggered "a coup d'état in Russia." It further alleged that doctors were confined with Putin's body on the orders of Federal Protective Service Director Dmitry Kochnev, who was receiving instructions from Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
The same post raised concerns about the security of a presidential stand-in and the potential for a coup if a double were to be presented as the president after Putin's supposed demise. A separate General SVR post from October 23 described officers discovering the president in a convulsive state on the floor, indicating that he had been moved to a specialized room for resuscitation.
While the post mentioned that the president's condition had stabilized and was under medical supervision, it also noted that Putin's inner circle was deeply concerned, as attending doctors reportedly indicated he might not survive until the end of autumn. Notably, General SVR, a Telegram account with nearly half a million subscribers, has a history of making false claims, and the author's identity remains anonymous.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov unequivocally rejected the rumors of Putin's cardiac arrest and death, labeling them as "just another hoax" and assuring the public that "everything is fine." Furthermore, President Putin continued to make public appearances, including attending government meetings, despite the Telegram posts.
According to Agentstvo's report, the peak of searches related to Putin's "death" on Yandex occurred between October 23 and October 29, coinciding with the posts published by General SVR. Throughout October, there were a total of 6.3 million searches involving the term "Putin."