Vladimir Putin has been given a maximum of three years to live by doctors, according to a Russian intelligence source.
The FSB officer said the Russian president, 69, “has a severe form of rapidly progressing cancer.”
And he added: “He has no more than two to three years to stay alive.”
The spy said the disease means Putin is also losing his sight.
He revealed: “We are told he is suffering from headaches and when he appears on TV he needs pieces of paper with everything written in huge letters to read what he’s going to say.
“They are so big each page can only hold a couple of sentences. His eyesight is seriously worsening.
“And his limbs are now also shaking uncontrollably.”
Last week Putin met with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi and was caught on camera awkwardly twisting his feet while the pair sat down for talks.
The previous week he was also spotting making odd movements on TV amid reports he is suffering from Parkinson’s and MS on top of cancer.
Ukrainian spymaster Kyrylo Budanov said: “He has several serious illnesses, one of which is cancer.”
Putin’s terminal prognosis emerged in a secret message from the Russian spy to FSB defector Boris Karpichkov now hiding out from Putin’s assassins in Britain.
The spook told him Putin has to squint at even the huge lettering he is given and is terrifying staff with abrupt mood changes.
The message added: “He won’t wear glasses to help because that would be a sign of weakness.
“He used to be composed with subordinates but now he has outbursts of uncontrolled fury. He has gone completely nuts and trusts almost no one.”
Reports last week citing Kremlin sources claimed that Putin underwent successful cancer surgery 14 days ago.
Former MI6 Russia desk officer Christopher Steele said Putin cannot hold meetings without breaks for treatment.
He added: “He’s constantly accompanied around the place by a team of doctors.
“The Kremlin is a bit like a shark pool. They all swim round and if they smell blood in the water they start fighting.”
It has got so bad that spymasters closest to Putin are actively talking about his successor and jostling for control of the handover.
Favourite is Aleksey Dyumin, 49, governor of the Tula region near Moscow. Once head of the presidential bodyguard, he claims to have saved Putin from a bear.
Also in the running is Astrakhan governor and former spook Igor Babushkin, 52, and Agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, 44.
He is the son of Putin buddy Nikolai Patrushev, the former FSB chief who now heads up the Russian Security Council.
