Report: Putin battles cancer and Parkinson's disease...

Report: Putin battles cancer and Parkinson's disease...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is battling both pancreatic cancer and Parkinson's disease, according to a new report citing emails leaked from the Kremlin.

A Russian intelligence source appeared to confirm in letters seen by The Sun what has long been rumoured about the 70-year-old strongman.

"I can confirm that he has been

diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in its early stages

but is already progressing," a security insider claimed.

This fact will be denied in every way possible and hidden, the source said, according to The Sun.

"Putin regularly fills all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative pain relief injections to stop the spread of recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer," the person said.

The source continued:

• Not only does it cause a lot of pain

• but Putin suffers from a bulging facial condition

• and other side effects - including memory lapses.

In his inner circle

there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer, the source added.

Rumors of Putin's presumed ill health have been circulating for months, with many unconfirmed reports that the president is battling cancer.

The Kremlin has always denied that Putin

who likes to show an image of power, suffers from any diseases.

The shocking report comes after Putin was recently seen on camera grabbing a soldier's arm while visiting a camp in the Ryazan region. He appeared to have IV track marks on the back of his hand.

Kyiv Post journalist Jason Jay Smart tweeted screenshots of the video, with an apparent mystery flaw at the hands of the Kremlin leader.

Smart wrote that the Kremlin released two versions of the video from Putin's trip: one with many watermarks blocking the view of the hand, and the other without the image of the hand.

Another theory

• put forward by former Ukraine correspondent Tom Warner

• suggested that what appears to be an IV sign could

• be  just a weird angle of bulging veins [sic].

Rumors of Putin's presumed ill health have swirled for months

driven in large part by unconfirmed reports from Telegram General SVR, which claimed to suffer from cancer, Parkinson's disease and an emotional schizophrenic disorder.

Russian independent Proekt claimed that Putin was always accompanied by medical staff, including senior oncologists, whenever he went on official visits.

After Putin canceled a trip to Kazakhstan in July

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made a rare statement about the leader's physical condition, telling reporters that everything is fine with his health.

Putin and his associates have repeatedly said

recently that Russia could use nuclear weapons to protect its territorial integrity - statements interpreted in the West as implicit threats to be used to defend Ukraine's four regions that Russia claims to annex.

Game theory specialist Georgie Egorov warned that a nuclear attack "makes sense" for Putin if he has just a few months to live, The Sun reports.

It makes sense to use Putin's nuclear weapons in just one situation

• if rumors about his health problems are true

•  if he has a few months to live

• he doesn't want to go down in history as a loser

• Egorov told Novaya Gazeta.