Shills.

Consider this, even if at first it seems counterintuitive. Have you ever had someone meant to meet you, but they got delayed and didn't call, so that you began to worry, then panic, then become convinced they'd been killed in a traffic smash-up?
How did you feel when they finally rolled up with just a casual 'Oh, I got delayed ...' Immense relief, followed by irritation, partly at them, partly at yourself for having got so worked-up. Right? You may feel a bit stupid.

Because the WHERE IS PUTIN, IS HE DEAD?!?! hysteria was whipped up so much, this guarantees, psychologically, a period of *non* interest in him. A brief check of the very short footage, 'yeah, it's him', and the overkill you just endured means that you won't even want to think about or look at him for a while - you're sick of his very name!

And that's what they want. Because as Jim S. has just pointed out in his excellent photo comparison, 'fake as fruit loops', the man you saw yesterday was *not* Vladimir Putin, but a double. No, not a clone, a lookalike. They know that 95% of you are now so weary of hearing about Putin, that you will not be studying 'fake Putin' all that closely over the coming weeks.

The question is, where is the real Putin? Dead? In the underground bunker in the Urals, leaving a double in Moscow so as not to alarm people?