Dreams of immortality
Under Putin's leadership, the number of state-funded scientific projects in the field of aging has increased sixfold (from seven approved between 2016 and 2022 to 43 between 2021 and 2025), Le Monde calculated.
In 2025, funding was received, in particular, for a program to regulate cell renewal processes in the body for long-term maintenance of the functional activity of organs and tissues, health and active longevity, which was headed by Putin’s eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova.
In September 2025, during a visit to China, Putin discussed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping “the chance of living to be 150 years old.” “Thanks to the development of biotechnology, human organs can be constantly transplanted, and people can feel younger and younger and even achieve immortality,” Putin said then.
In April 2022, Project released an investigation into Putin’s health. It turned out that his medical team has at least 10 doctors who constantly follow him. Among the doctors who participate in presidential trips and fly to closed residences are neurosurgeons, otolaryngologists, and an oncologist surgeon.
“Having taken the chair of the head of state at the age of 47, Putin at the beginning of his presidential career exploited the image of an active man in the prime of his life… With age, concern for health and longevity so absorbs the president that he even shows interest in alternative medicine, although many in his family are doctors,” the material said.
Blood baths
In the same “Project” investigation, it was reported that Putin began to practice baths with an extract of antlers (the horns of Altai deer). The extract is credited with anti-aging properties, although the method has no proven clinical effectiveness. To obtain the necessary substance, animals are tied up or clamped on a special machine in the spring, cutting off the not yet ossified, blood-filled horns with a hacksaw. Animal rights activists compare the sensations of animals with torture – tearing out a person's nails.
“Putin, who began to think more about his health, on one of his trips immersed himself in a bath with a brew of deer antlers emitting a specific smell. An acquaintance of the president claims that he was warned: there is not a single convincing evidence of the benefits of antler baths. But Putin liked it, since then he has been to Altai more than once,” journalists reported, citing a source among Putin’s acquaintances.
According to media reports, he even got himself a “dacha” in Altai – a secret residence, which is officially registered as a Gazprom tourist complex. The complex supposedly includes a farm for breeding deer and a huge modern bunker.
In 2016, before a meeting of the State Council in Altai, 70 kg of antlers were prepared for Putin, as the media wrote.
Shamanic rituals
The Project’s investigation mentioned that the then Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu joined Putin’s antler baths in the mid-2000s. He has fallen out of favor in recent years, but remains a personal friend of Putin, according to Russian-Israeli politician Leonid Nevzlin.
“Those who carefully observed their joint trips to Siberia could notice Putin’s interest in Buddhist practices, his attention to Altai and Tuvan healers and a number of other characteristic details,” Nevzlin notes.
Journalist Mikhail Zygar claimed in 2024, citing sources close to the Kremlin, that Putin traveled to Tuva and Mongolia for secret consultations with “the most powerful shamans in the world.” According to him, during Putin’s numerous trips to Tuva in previous years, he and Shoigu “participated in shamanic rituals.”
Russian journalist Ivan Yakovina, who lives in Ukraine, also spoke about this on the air of Ukraine 24. According to his information, Putin and Shoigu from time to time go to Siberia “not just to relax, but they perform all sorts of shamanic rituals there.” “After the story with the Yakut shaman Alexander Gabyshev, in whom Putin strongly believed, and also under the influence of the Tuvan Shoigu, Putin began to believe in this occult movement and began to regularly conduct the corresponding rituals. For this purpose, in a deserted place in Siberia on the banks of the Khemchik River, they even built a special temple in the form of a golden yurt,” he said.
“They performed shamanic rituals on Brokeback Mountain with Shoigu in identical suits. There, they say, they even burned several camels so that Putin would not lose the remnants of his health,” said former State Duma deputy and opera singer Maria Maksakova.
Cryochamber
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During a meeting in the Kremlin in 2018, Putin advised then-Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to try a cryochamber, in which the body is exposed to extremely low temperatures, the WSJ reported. Kurtz later recalled his surprise when Putin enthusiastically explained the benefits of regularly being naked in that freezer.
In publications concerning the arrangement of Putin’s personal residences and medical offices, the presence of specialized cryogenic chambers was repeatedly mentioned. It is believed that such procedures trigger tissue regeneration processes, reduce inflammation and stimulate the immune system.
In March 2023, Russian political scientist, journalist and TV presenter Stanislav Belkovsky said in an interview with Alesya Batsman, editor-in-chief of the online publication GORDON, that Putin often spends time in a cryochamber.
Artificial organs
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According to The Wall Street Journal, Putin's desire for eternal life is now a state priority. Putin is spending billions of dollars on research into a variety of anti-aging techniques. These include developments in the field of gene therapy, bioprinting of human tissue and experiments on growing organs in genetically modified animals for possible transplantation into humans.
The project is being carried out by people close to Putin, in particular his daughter Maria Vorontsova and physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, one of the main ideologists of Kremlin science, who “raves about eternal life and the “Russian genome.” Kovalchuk himself states that humanity will soon learn to “repair” the body almost endlessly.
One of the main directions was the development of a gene therapy method that should slow down cellular aging.
In addition, scientists appointed by Putin have focused on two key technologies: bioprinting, or 3D printing of living tissue, and xenotransplantation, or growing human organs inside mini-pigs, a breed of pig considered genetically compatible with humans. Russian scientists announce plans to learn how to print human organs by 2030. Meduza experts believe that this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Currently, the practical application of 3D printing in medicine is limited to “non-living” products – implants, orthopedic products, dental bridges and those related to the field of prosthetics. The Russian Ministry of Defense presented a “fabric gun” – a compact bioprinter that is capable of “sealing a wound on the battlefield” – but even if the occupiers use it at the front, it obviously has not received widespread use.
The WSJ article also mentions the influence of the director of the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, Vladimir Khavinson, whom the Russian media nicknamed “Putin’s gerontologist.” He promoted rejuvenation methods based on peptides derived from calf tissue. Khavinson, who received an order from Putin for achievements in medicine, stated that he “sought to prolong the life of a leader whose departure would plunge Russia into crisis.” He also claimed that man is destined to live up to 120 years, citing biblical texts.
Khavinson died in 2024 at the age of 77.
