Why does Putin have to carry around a 'poop suitcase'?

When Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to attend the Russia-US summit in Alaska last week, reports stated that his guards had to carry a special ‘poop suitcase’ with him.

Apart from a slew of security measures, Putin’s guards reportedly collect his faecal matter and take it back to Russia whenever he travels abroad.

The bizarre practice was originally reported by the French publication Paris Match, by investigative journalists Regis Gente and Mikhail Rubin. Members of the President's Federal Protection Service (FPS) will be responsible for collecting his human waste in special bags inside briefcases.

The practice has been going on for years, and it is speculated that it was originally employed to prevent foreign powers from getting a sample of his bodily waste. If examined, the biological matter could provide intelligence agencies with sensitive insights into his health.

A BBC journalist, Farida Rustamova, had reported that the practice had been in place since Putin assumed leadership in 1999. Rustamova first reported on the practice in 2017 when Putin travelled to France. The Russian president had also used a portable toilet during his trip to Vienna.

The reports have gained attention when there is an ongoing speculation about the Russian president's health.

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The twitching was also noticed in 2023 when Putin was meeting the Belarusian president, Alexandr Lukashenko, and again at a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In 2022, the Kremlin had to quash rumours that were circulated by the general SVR telegram channels that said that Putin had soiled himself after a fall, the Express US reported.

Moscow dismissed the comments as “baseless rumours’ that were spun by his enemies.