NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-uin has arrived in Russia but "will only meet Vladimir Putin's lookalike", a bizarre theory claims.
Photos showed the moment the dictator, surrounded by brief-case wielding guards, arrived in Vladivostok train station and was greeted by a Russian minister.
Russian officials welcomed the iron fist ruler as he disembarked from his luxury train, as Putin continues to attend the Eastern Economic Forum.
But according to Russian opposition sources, Kim will not be meeting the real president during his visit to Russia.
It is claimed that he is seriously ill with terminal cancer and has not been seen in public for more than a year.
Instead, a doppelgänger dictator - or even several lookalikes - now replace the real ex-KGB spy at public events.
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Russian political analyst Dr Valery Solovey has backed up those wild theories.
He told mainstream opposition channel Khodorkovsky.Live that Putin is seriously ill.
“He [Putin] is in such a physical state that - and I am saying it very calmly - he will not make it through this autumn,” he said.
“Let me stress: he [Putin] will not survive this autumn.”
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Kim boarded the train bound for Russia ahead of a meeting with President Putin, arriving around 11:30pm in Vladivostok.
Yet Telegram channel General SVR said the North Korean dictator will be completely unaware that he is not meeting the real Putin.
They said: “Kim Jong-un does not know that he will have to communicate not with the real Putin, but with his double.
“But since [Kim], not without reason, is considered not a very insightful person, they decided that the double should cope.
“For the double, these will be the most difficult negotiations during his short tenure as ‘president’ of Russia.”
The channel has long claimed - offering little proof - that Putin is terminally ill.
Putin is said to be "pumped full of drugs" as he lies on his "deathbed" and Ukrainian military intelligence are convinced he hasn't appeared since June last year.
Ukraine’s respected military intelligence chief Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov recently insisted the real Putin has not been seen in public for more than a year.
“The one, who everyone used to know, was last seen around 26 June 2022,” he said.
Prominent Ukrainian TV anchor Savik Shuster said: “Putin will not live until the end of this year.
“A consilium of doctors has said that. And said it directly to Putin.
“The last consilium was a few days ago, and the doctors were even surprised that he's still alive.
"And in fact…he shouldn't even survive October.”
Solovey — a former professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], a training academy for spies and diplomats - said that a double will be used for some time.
He said: “The double will be used for some time, but they won’t be able to use him for long."
They will use him [the double] for some time, there is consensus about it - but not for long,” he said.
“As soon as Putin is dead, we would know about it within several hours.
“By ‘some time’ I mean two, three months.
“It won’t be reported by a broadcast of Swan Lake [as in Soviet times when a leader died]
“No, officially this information will be hidden - but we will learn about it [Putin’s death].
“There are too many actors outside and inside Russia, interested in making this information [about Putin’s death] public.”
Putin and Kim will reportedly discuss the possibility of Kim providing Moscow with the fearsome arsenal of weapons at an undisclosed location.
Whoever Kim ends up meeting between Putin and one of his alleged body doubles, then it is expected to spell bad news for the west.
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International Relations expert Sergey Radchenko yesterday told The Sun: "The issue at stake is whether North Korea sends weapons to Russia.
"If it does, it would be a relatively important development, with implications for the war in Ukraine."