Valery Solovei

Valery Dmitriyevich Solovei (born 19 August 1960) is a Russian historian, political scientist and conspiracy theorist,  who served as the professor and head of the Public Relations Department at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He resigned from the MGIMO on June 19, 2019.

On 27 October 2023 Solovei announced that Putin had died on Thursday, October 26, from complications of cancer. According to Solovei, the Putin we see now is actually his body double who has been replacing Putin during last several months on some meetings.

Political forecasts
Solovei is known for his political forecasts. Some of his predictions about changes in the Russian leadership turned out to be accurate. In 2016, he predicted the appointments of Anton Vaino and Vyacheslav Volodin as the Kremlin Chief of Staff and the Chairman of the State Duma, respectively. In January 2022, Solovey correctly predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but had previously claimed that a major war between Russia and Ukraine was "out of question". Solovei also incorrectly predicted a Russian attack on the Baltic states in 2019 and 2020.

In 2016, Solovei predicted limitations on leaving Russia and the introduction of a tourist exit tax after the 2016 Russian legislative election, which did not happen.

Since 2017, Solovei has regularly predicted an imminent end of Putin's regime in Russia:.

The rumors about Putin's deteriorating health started by Solovei were subsequently published many times in the Russian-language and English-language press.