A 'fearful and paranoid' Vladimir Putin is facing yet more questions over poor health after he was seen with a swollen and 'visibly aged' face during a Victory Day parade in Moscow. 

Over the weekend, Russia celebrated the 81st anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in 1945 with an unusually muted parade that, for the first time in years, featured no armoured vehicles or ballistic missiles. 

But few listened to Putin's claims at the rally of fighting a 'just' war against Ukraine's 'aggressive force[s]', instead focusing on his bulging cheeks. 

Ukrainian commentator Anton Gerashchenko pointed to one unflattering image of the 73-year-old ex-spy, posting: 'The face of a 'victor' and the leader of a 'superpower'.

He joked: 'It seems sanctions have even reached Putin's Botox'.

Monitoring group Crimean Wind said: 'History shows that many dictators visibly aged before the fall of their regime or their death.

'Scientists link this to chronic stress, paranoid fear of losing power, and isolation, which accelerate the body's ageing.'

Putin's appearance sparks fresh health speculation 

Putin's health has long sparked debate. In late 2025, eagle-eyed watchers spotted bulging veins and unusual fist-clenching as he shook hands with a health expert. 

Putin met with Yekaterina Leshchinskaya, 22, the chair of the Russian Healthy Fatherland movement, to discuss the possibility of banning the sale of e-cigarettes in the country when the marks on his hands were noticed.

As he reached to shake the woman's hand, the Russian leader's right hand was seen with visible bulging veins, prominent tendons, and thin, wrinkled skin.

Footage of the moment saw the Russian leader appear to nervously move his fingers and clench them into a fist under his blazer sleeve.

Following the circulation of the clip on X, and later in Polish media, Ukrainian sources have suggested that the Russian dictator may be suffering from pain.

Putin critics say scaled-back parade reflects weakening authority 

Putin foe Leonid Nevzlin saw last weekend's 'shrinking' parade with no military hardware for the first time in almost two decades as symbolic of Putin's loosening grip.

He has created 'a state in which the main ritual is contracted around one ageing man, shrinking together with his capacities.

'The regime is structured so that the question of its future has turned into the question of one old man's health.

'Not about elections, not about political course, not about a split in the elites.

'About a cardiogram, about the appearance of decrepit hands.

These are the only places where change is still possible in the country. For this body, like any other, has a deadline.'

Ukrainian analyst Ivan Yakovina said: 'One can assume this parade will be his last.'

Khodorkovsky accused him of hijacking the Soviet defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War for his own propaganda purposes.

'On an empty square, with almost no [military] equipment, beneath an electronic warfare dome, he tries to privatise someone else's victory in order to justify his own shameful, criminal war,' he said.

'Instead of a nationwide holiday, we got a personal 'special operation' of one deeply frightened, ageing dictator.

'A celebration for one person at the expense of the entire country.'

Ukrainian commentator Alexey Kopytko said Putin is losing his fanatical pro-war cheerleaders.

'At the parade, the centre of attention was not the leader of a superpower, but a tired old man with shifty eyes whom they still tolerate. And he senses it.

'His experience and skills still help him put on the right mask when interacting, but the moment he's left alone with himself — everything shows on his face.

'A short, decrepit man bending under the weight of a burden he can no longer lift.

The strained, sorrowful faces of Putin's entourage periodically appeared on camera.

'In general, no enthusiasm, no celebration.'

Never before have security operatives hovered around Putin so closely, he said.

'You can search for comparison with parades of previous years.

'Security is always there, that's protocol, but there has never been such hovering.

'Either Putin himself is afraid, or he's being wound up and intimidated this way - which causes him to become fearful and paranoid.'

He appears 'alone and isolated' inside his security bubble.

This came as the toll in the past month has seen Putin lose 7,480 personnel - killed, wounded, and captured - over the first week of May.

This amounts to one loss every 80 seconds.

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