Back in April, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke on the phone for 90 minutes—which may be when the Russian president caught the mumbles from his U.S. counterpart.
Late night comedy shows frequently mock Trump’s slurred mispronunciations that turn “Venezuela” into “Venezwhergull.” Even cautious Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon joined in the teasing, offering a supercut of Trump mangling words including “statistics,” “infrastructure,” and “significantly.”
Now the Russian president has a supercut of his own odd mumblings. It won’t appear on public TV because poking fun at the leader is not allowed. Still, last week, Russians were giggling in private after Putin met with members of the military and suggested their gathering end with a “Hurrah.” If they shouted loud enough, he told those assembled, the troops would hear it at the front.
Even in Russian, the traditional cheer is two syllables that sound like “Ooh-ra.” Yet as Putin leapt in to lead the group, a strange sound came out of his mouth: “Ra, Ra, Ra!” He could only pronounce half of it. But one microphone caught all of it.
An edited version omitting the embarrassing moment appeared on the Kremlin website and state TV. But the original version quickly spread on the Internet. By the time the video was removed by state propaganda, both the original and the censored versions were published on Telegram. Nothing could spare the regime’s humiliation.
Russians were shocked by the president’s garbling and some compared it to “baby cries.” Many wondered what was wrong with Putin. Some blamed Botox, suggesting the president’s frozen facial muscles made it hard for him to form an “Ooh” with his mouth. An experienced dentist at a Moscow clinic told The Daily Beast that Putin’s vocal struggles might even be due to “him changing his dental bridge in place of the missing teeth.”
Putin’s slurred cheer also raises red flags of a possible larger underlying health issue. This is true of Trump, too, although he declared that “everything checked out perfectly” at his recent physical at Walter Reed Medical Center. White House doctors have not yet confirmed his report. (Some medical professionals have stated publicly that they believe the U.S. president has suffered a stroke.)
The Kremlin is equally effusive about Putin’s health, pushing the narrative that the 73-year-old is as strong and capable as ever even after 25 years at a high-stress job. Still, when Putin travels abroad, the foreign media is free to mention his “frail” looks, like his “awkward walk” seen in Beijing.
Just this week, fresh off his visit to China, Putin made a trip to Kazakhstan that quickly ignited mockery after the Russian leader appeared “confused again” by the name of the counterpart he was meeting with. Addressing Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Putin bizarrely called him “Sargan Kemelovich.”
“Putin’s life is supposed to always look perfect,” a former journalist for Kremlin-controlled Channel One told the Daily Beast, speaking anonymously from their new place of residence in exile. “His policy is supposed to sound successful. Every time Frankenstein fell apart, our job was to put him together again and push him forward.”
It remains to be seen how long both Russians and Americans will continue to believe that their presidents are perfect physical specimens. In the meantime, Trump continues to command the U.S. military to pummel Iran while Putin launches daily strikes on innocent people in Ukraine. This year, Russia will tell its citizens that life has not changed for the worse after invading Ukraine four years ago. The state will ignore the 30,000 Russian soldiers who are killed and injured every month as well as the thousands who have lost jobs and the mass exodus of Russian talent to other countries.
“Putin and Trump are the same in that they have to demonstrate power,” Ilya, a 38-year-old Moscow lawyer, said. “They fire missiles to boost their fading machismo and prove that they are still functioning as young men.”
These two leaders may be broken, but it hasn’t stopped them from campaigns of destruction. Actions speak louder than slurred words.
