Time: gait betrays Putin's head

Vladimir Putin and other top Russian government officials have been “diagnosed with the gait of a Wild West gunslinger,” writes The Times, citing a scientific article. "It is included in the British Medical Journal's Christmas issue, which highlights research on 'weird and funny topics' that must, however, undergo the usual peer review process," writes journalist Kat Lay Hilt.

Doctors noticed that Putin’s video recordings show a “clearly narrowed amplitude of right arm swings” when walking—an early symptom of Parkinson’s disease. However, experts considered that in the case of Putin, a specific gait was more likely the result of training in the KGB, the article says.

Bas Bloom, a professor at the Dutch Parkinson's Disease Center in Nijmegen, read in the KGB training manual: “When you move, it is absolutely necessary to press the weapon to your chest or hold it in your right hand.”

After studying videos on YouTube, scientists noticed that a narrowed swing of the right hand was also observed in Prime Minister Medvedev, ex-ministers of defense Serdyukov and Ivanov, as well as General Anatoly Sidorov. “The tempting thought was that they all had Parkinson’s disease and there was an outbreak in the Kremlin,” Bloom said.

But Ivanov served in the KGB, and Serdyukov has “an army background,” as the newspaper puts it. Medvedev's gait, as scientists have suggested, "is explained by the fact that he has learned to 'imitate his boss.'

Here are other arguments against the version of Parkinson's disease: Putin’s gait does not change over the years, that is, there are no signs of the development of the disease. On others videotapes Putin raises the barbell or demonstrates judo techniques (which means that both the muscles and the nerves of his right hand are fine).

Scientists have dubbed this movement pattern the “Wild West gunfighter’s gait” and suggested that it is formed when cadets are trained to “walk with their right hand close to their chest so that they can quickly draw their weapon when confronted by an enemy.”

Previously, Forum tried dealto whom and how long was Vladimir Putin late for.