Vladimir Putin appeared 'overweight,' bloated and unusually fidgety at Russia's Victory Day parade on 9 May in Moscow's Red Square, where he reviewed a stripped‑back military display that, according to footage broadcast on Russian state television and widely shared online, drew almost as much attention to his physical condition as to the troops marching past.
For context, Victory Day is the Kremlin's annual showpiece, used to celebrate the Soviet Union's victory in the Second World War and to project military strength at home and abroad. Putin has long treated it as a stage on which to reinforce his image as a vigorous, hands‑on commander. This year, though, the coverage showed a noticeably heavier, paler and more distracted leader presiding over a ceremony that felt muted rather than triumphant.
