If there is one man who is probably happiest that Vladimir Putin’s travel schedule has been so heavily curtailed of late, it is probably the Federal Protection Service officer responsible for ensuring the product of the president’s bathroom breaks return to the Motherland. Foreign powers may, after all, go to extreme lengths to test his health.
When Putin does travel abroad, it is not just with his own food and drink, his own chefs and his array of bodyguards, it is also with his dedicated porta-potty. This allows his numbers ones and twos to be collected, sealed into special bags, and then put in a briefcase, ready to travel home with the boss. Rather than some freakish obsession, this reflects a suspicion that Western intelligence agencies would try to intercept them for medical analysis.
There is an odd mix of mythology, rumour and downright conspiracy theory that swirls around the Russian president
This is not necessarily paranoia.
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