VLADIMIR Putin has been spotted posing in high heel shoes – but so-called Kremlin insiders claim it was a body double.

The 5ft 7ins tyrant, who has long fancied himself as a macho strongman, wore the wedged black shoes while meeting students in Moscow.

4

4

4

But Telegram channel General SVR – which claims to be fed information by a Kremlin insider – alleges the man at the centre of the snap is actually Putin’s “main body double”.

The channel claims to have noticed some “obvious differences”.

It also pointed out that at the appearance on Wednesday, Putin, 70, was all smiles, while a video a day earlier showed the dictator looking glum with his right hand concealed from view.

The Russian dictator has been accused of using a body double several times in the past year, including at a summit in Iran.

Ukraine’s head of military intelligence previously claimed Putin has three doppelgangers on the go.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov alleged each of them had undergone plastic surgery to look like him.

According to the General SVR channel, Putin deployed one to Moscow yesterday for Russian Students Day.

It claimed: “During a public meeting with students…many noticed some oddities and physiological features of the ‘president’.

“A person similar to Putin, unlike the original, was absolutely not afraid to be near a large number of little-known and completely unfamiliar people, which is not at all typical for the president in the past few years.

“Obvious differences were observed on the face of pseudo-Putin and in the manner his behaviour.

“The left cheekbone of the understudy was swollen and moved unnaturally with the ‘president’s’ facial expressions.

“An unnaturally hanging upper lip is the result of an unsuccessful ‘fitting’ of the understudy.”

It also claimed the alleged understudy had undergone too many botox injections.

The channel added: “The stunt double’s laughing style is different from Putin’s” while some movements “appear constrained

“This public appearance of the president’s double was not the most successful, but nothing can be done because Putin is not able to take part in such events.”

Putin three years ago admitted that officials urged him to use doubles, but he claimed the idea was rejected.

A video earlier showed Putin meeting Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod region which borders Ukraine and has been hit by repeated shelling in the war.

In this footage, the president at one point looked pained and with his left hand fidgeted awkwardly with a container of pencils.

His right hand remained out of view as the session got underway and his face twitched a few times.

There were several momentary facial twitches.

The General SVR has repeatedly claimed the tyrant is “critically ill” – with rumours fuelled by his bloated face and trembling legs.

Bombshell spy documents leaked to The Sun appeared to confirm he has pancreatic cancer and early-stage Parkinson’s disease.

4