putin
President of Russia Vladimir Putin attends an informal meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 8, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Some recent reports have woven a link between the Russian President Vladimir Putin's impatience and belligerence in Ukraine with that of his failing health because of a reported cancer in his spinal chord.

According to New York Post report, Putin is allegedly being treated for cancer and that is why he is in a hurry to invade Ukraine. The report also says that an elderly doctor from the old East Germany is treating Putin, whom he knows for many years, when he was serving in Dresden as a KGB agent. The German doctor has been administering various treatments to Putin, that included steroid shots, explaining Putin's puffy appearance. But the 84 years old physician quit recently, saying he disliked visiting Russia as he was feeling ill-treated by Putin's security guards.

According to Page 6 scribe Richard Johnson, in a report, "Some say that Putin has only three years to live and wants to leave a legacy in terms of expanding the Russian frontiers like Peter the Great or Stalin", reports Inquisitr.

Putin Has Won In Ukraine

Amidst the anxiety of the West over Russia's moves in Eastern Europe, Business Week has reported that the perception is growing that Putin has tactically won the war in Ukraine. It says, now the only question left is, what Putin wants next? It has quoted a slew of opinions from leading Kremlin-watchers who say the Russian president has already achieved his goals of crippling Ukraine and consolidating his power in Russia.

According to George Soros, billionaire investor, Putin has outmaneuvered all Western governments by exploiting their weakness to confront Russia militarily. "Putin's Russia has proved superior to the European Union by being more flexible and throwing up surprises constantly," Soros noted in an article for the New York Review of Books. Soros blames the U.S and said it offered Ukraine "a façade of support with little substance behind it," and Ukraine is plunging into an economic collapse.

Gérard Araud, French ambassador told Bloomberg that Putin "won because we were not ready to die for Ukraine". Araud reflected it as his personal views and said Putin is like a poker player who bluffed and won. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been reduced to "kneeling before Putin with the cord around his neck and saying, 'You have won,' Araud added. Peter Wittig, Germany's Ambassador told Bloomberg News that Putin had got "the upper hand as no one could read where he would go next."

Putin Moment

Radek Sikorski, Poland's speaker and a former foreign minister told Politico that Putin used the Ukraine conflict to consolidate his domestic power and centralised everything in his hands by creating a "new ruling elite" dominated by the military and security services. Liam Halligan, a British journalist and a specialist on Russia said the "West is going to surrender in the new Cold War with Russia," He said EU's sanctions against Russia are hurting the German and French economies severely.