VLADIMIR Putin's personal "anti-aging" doctor has died in a major blow for the botox-loving dictator.
The death of Professor Vladimir Khavinson, 77, comes at a concerning time for Putin as he eyes up six more years in the Kremlin.
It is unclear as to how Khavinson died.
The former director of the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology famously claimed he was developing the secret for humans to live to 110 or 120 by slowing the process of ageing.
Putin, 71, is known to have a close interest in techniques for prolonging life, and decorated the professor in 2017 with a major honour at a Kremlin ceremony.
Khavinson told a “perfect” Putin that he could rule at least into his mid-80s, a path the dictator is now apparently following after announcing he will stand for a new six-year term in March.
The professor is known to have previously helped three Kremlin leaders - Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Boris Yeltsin.
He complained about being invited too late to significantly extend their lives, however.
It's also known that Putin’s lover Alina Kabaeva, 40, took "Khavinson's peptides" - anti-ageing and curative cocktails he pioneered after years of secret research while working for the Soviet Red Army.
In 2017, Khavinson offered to help Donald Trump “because he has a huge amount of stress and energy losses”.
Commenting on Putin’s infamous picture from 2013 in which he flaunts his naked torso while riding a horse, he said: “Wonderful photo - that's what a man should look like.
"Why is he perfect? He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he does sports.
"His example should be followed. Everyone, young and not, should do the same."
Khavinson predicted the strongman could go on for "20 years at least - his potential is very high”.
Putin is known for his drastically changing appearance and has been labelled a cosmetic surgery addict.
According to experts, the former spy has been taking regular botox and cheek fillers to maintain his image in a desperate search for eternal youth.
Nonetheless, Khavinson has never admitted whether Putin took his anti-ageing peptides.
“At the time I was a military scientist and the goal was to create new drugs to stimulate resource of organ use for military people,” Khavinson said.
Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship in a Kremlin ceremony.
In Soviet times, the expert developed medication to help submariners, cosmonauts, soldiers in Afghanistan, and survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion.
He once said: "I am often asked abroad: how did you do it?
"Everything was based on the achievements of the Soviet Union, the Military Medicine Academy, and the Defence Ministry who financed this research for military purposes.”
The professor was allowed to secretly test his experimental drugs on Russian people under the cloak of military confidentiality.
Everyone should also be injected for ten days twice a year with "a natural medication extracted from calves," he said.
Khavinson claimed his institute’s medicines for delaying ageing - inclining Thymalin and Epithalamin - were discoveries “as important as the development of the atomic bomb".
“It is colossally significant for the whole of mankind," he said.
Holding the rank of colonel, Khavinson will be given a military burial in St Petersburg on Tuesday.
His death comes as the chief editor of one of Putin's propaganda TV channels was found dead from a suspected poisoning.
Zoya Konovalova, 48, who ran a channel operating near the frontlines of Mad Vlad's illegal war, was found alongside her ex-husband.
And ahead of Russia's sham election, a cosmetic surgery obsessed Influencer is set to take on Putin for presidency.
Rada Russkikh, 39, has been labelled a "freak candidate" after she was allowed to run against power hungry Vlad to seemingly help improve his image and boost his popularity.
