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With the current global political climate in turmoil, news that Putin may step down as Russian leader is something of a cat among the pigeons.

The long-standing President of the Russian Federation, 64-year-old Vladimir Putin, has health concerns that may cause him to leave office in 2017, according to Kremlin expert, Valery Solovey.

Solovey’s claims were published in a story titled ‘Thunderstorm 2017: maybe Putin will be replaced by a successor in several months’ which appeared on a Kremlin-friendly news website – Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) – and was deleted within a few hours.

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Valery Solovey, professor at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs said:

The president might need to avoid publicity in 2017 for several months or will appear very rarely. As you see, this hypothetical situation is very nervy from the point of view of Russian policy.

The Russian political analyst hinted that Putin may need to step aside due to ‘certain circumstances’.

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After his interviewer pushed him further on the matter of Putin’s health he said, ‘Let me not say more, I have said enough. And let me stress once again: this information is not absolutely reliable. Still, it should be considered.’

After the article was deleted, Solovey (pictured above) took to Facebook and Twitter to confirm his assertions about the President’s health.

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The posts translates as thus:

Before the end of the year, the respected audience will get confirmation of everything mentioned in the much talked-about interview.

The question of who would take over in the case of Putin’s inability to fulfil the presidential role now hangs over the Kremlin.

The deleted article named two men: current premier Dmitry Medvedev (pictured below), who served a four year term as president ending in 2012, and the ex-Putin bodyguard and former deputy defence minister, Alexei Dyumin.

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Solovey believes the Kremlin is considering holding elections as soon as 2017, a full year before Putin’s current six-year term draws to a close. He does not believe Putin will be a candidate.

He explained the reasoning behind this assertion:

Party because of these circumstances, partly because of geo-strategic considerations. Putin is convinced that as long as he is the president, it would not be possible to improve relations with the West. So in order to change this situation it is necessary that Russia is represented at the negotiations by a different person.

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All eyes have been on Putin, who welcomed Trump as the new President-elect of the United States. Putin has previously said Trump is a rare Western leader that ‘he could do business with’.