Businessman Close To Putin: Shoigu's Health Not So Good

• 26.04.2022, 9:36

The Russian defence minister was often absent for a month to a month and a half.

Sergei Pugachev, a Russian businessman living in France, a former member of the Russian Federation Council and a former close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with the editor-in-chief of the website gordonua.com Alesa Batzman that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has health problems.

The journalist asked if it was true that Shoigu had a massive heart attack, which was caused by nerves, "because Putin allegedly took a swipe at him very seriously for failing the war in Ukraine, that the blitzkrieg had failed."

"I don't believe that, although I don't know... But Shoigu's health is not good. He was often away for a month and a half, he was sick, and no Putin was needed to 'help' it at all. It's just his thing. Something was going on with him. I do not go into details, but I remember that he was often absent and had to stay in the Central Clinical Hospital for a long time and so on. That is, he has some health problems, but I do not know what they are," Pugachev said.

He said he doubted it was related to the war in Ukraine.

"And the fact that Putin, as you say, 'took a swipe at him' - I don't believe that at all. Putin is not the kind of person who does it. He can take a swipe in about the same way he did it at [Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei] Naryshkin [at a meeting of the Russian Security Council on February 21]. It was a tough, sadistic [put down]," the businessman said.