The Moscow Times reports that Russia’s Ministry of Health has pressed research institutes to provide immediate updates on their efforts to combat aging, cognitive decline, and osteoporosis, as well as to strengthen the immune system.

“We were asked to urgently send all of our developments, and the letter arrived, let’s say, today, but everything had to be sent yesterday,” one researcher told Meduza.

The urgency is reportedly driven by Mikhail Kovalchuk, a 77-year-old scientist and close friend of Putin. Kovalchuk, who heads the Kurchatov Nuclear Research Institute and has ties to a state-funded genetics program that includes Putin’s eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, is said to be leading the push for life-extension research.

“The big boss set the task, and officials rushed to implement it in every possible way,” according to a Kremlin insider.

Kovalchuk is described as being “obsessed with eternal life.”

He reportedly pitched the idea to Putin.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Somewhere, in some pathetic bunker, Putin is having terrible diarrhea day after day while taking this so-called treatment.

    Please enjoy that thought while you continue doom scrolling.

    • Minarble@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      Ahh the old philosophical question:

      “Would you take eternal life if it basically involved sitting on the toilet shitting your guts out all day every day?”

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Certain “cures” don’t sit well with your gut, and it’s a pleasant image, so that’s my thought after hearing he’s getting treated for age.