Putin spoke with schoolchildren in Kaliningrad on the occasion of the new school year. In addition to the goals of the “special military operations”, as the Kremlin called the invasion of Ukraine, he also spoke with them about Russia’s history.

“He claimed that the Russian Ministry of Education told him that the children of the Russian-occupied Donbas did not know that there was a bridge to Crimea or that Ukraine and Russia were once part of a unified country,” he wrote. Twitter Financial Times analyst Max Seddon, who completed the post with a video.

But social network users were more interested in Putin’s behavior than the content of his speech. The Russian president slouches in his chair, sits there, stomping his half-shoe on the ground or twisting his ankle significantly. The twitching of the lower limbs can sometimes seem completely uncontrollable.

Some users under Seddon’s post started speculating that Putin’s behavior seemed unnatural and could be caused by various health issues. “The question is not what Putin does with his feet, but what his feet do with Putin. It seems he can’t control them,” read one of comment. “He looks like he’s going to slide off his chair and onto the floor at any moment,” another user wrote.

The 69-year-old Russian president’s physical and mental health has been under surveillance since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.

In recent months, a number of speculations have surfaced in the media, some of which have claimed that Putin is seriously ill and is being treated for thyroid cancer, leukemia or Parkinson’s disease. The Kremlin called such rumors “fabrication and lies”.