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When traveling, Putin's poop kept in suitcase to prevent it being studied [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-08-18

Premier Vladimir Putin's bodyguards carry a "poop suitcase," it is alleged, so that the Russian state can maintain custody of his potentially-revealing excrement on his travels. Putin's health is often the subject of media intrigue. Though only 72, not particularly old compared to many of his peers, he sometimes appears waxen or odd.

Citing investigative journalists Regis Gente and Mikhail Rubin in the French publication Paris Match, The Express US reported that members of the Russian President's Federal Protection Service (FPS) collect his human waste, including his faeces, store it in special bags, and carry it in dedicated briefcases. The measure reportedly dates back several years, including Putin's visit to France in May 2017, The Express US reported. It is suspected that the surprising security measure is undertaken to stop foreign powers from taking samples of Putin's human waste, potentially gaining information on the Russian leader's health.

One journalist told The Express U.S. that "the president has carried out the practice since he began his leadership in 1999." Note that the UK tabloid in question here has a long-established taste for fabricated stories and conspiracy theories–and this story is suspiciously, well, I hesitate to say "sweet" but that's the intrusive thought.

There is, though, a history to this sort of thing. George W. Bush reportedly had a portable toilet set up for a foreign trip in 2006. Soviet leader Josef Stalin had Chairman Mao's poop studied after a visit. Israeli and Jordanian security services used stool analysis, allegedly, to confirm that Syrian President Hafez al-Assad was in poor health.

It is believed that the CIA collected the waste of both former Russian leader Milkhail Gorbachev and current Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni during their visits to Washington.

Previously:

• What's inside a poop?

• A toilet with facial recognition for your butthole

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