Though Kremlin has reiterated that Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose health has become a point of speculation, is 'absolutely healthy', it has not stopped netizens from trolling about his 'death'.
Hours after the Kazakhstan government opened the line of speculation about Putin's health as he cancelled slated meetings, #putinisdead became a popular hashtag on Twitter, while someone also went on to make a sarcastic website called isputindead.com.
"It looks like he has fallen ill," a Kazakh official had told Reuters.
Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, however, brushed off rumours of his health, adding that "his handshake is so strong he breaks hands with it".
The statement itself was enough for netizens to circulate memes, and with Putin staying out of public view for several days, social media was abuzz about the possible reasons.
This is, however, not the first time Putin's health has become a source of speculations. In 2012, media reports had suggested the Russian President had taken ill, after it was noticed he had cut down on his visits to Moscow.
Putin himself had appeared before the media to dismiss the rumours, while calling it a ploy of the Opposition, according to RT.com.
Here are some light tweets and memes that kept netizens busy on Thursday.
The media taught us today that if Vladimir Putin doesn't appear on TV every day, it means he's dying of cancer.
— Serge (@Zinvor) March 13, 2015
#Putin dead? #Putinisdead pic.twitter.com/IAS50RM0KS — Silver Surfer (@RobPulseNews) March 12, 2015
While #putinisdead may be trending on twitter, and is certainly interesting to contemplate, I very much doubt it is true.
— Kerri Kellett (@KerriKellett) March 13, 2015
Woke up this morning to unconfirmed reports Vladimir Putin was ill. 12hrs on and the Internet is saying he's dead. That escalated quickly. — Matt Thomson (@Matt_News) March 13, 2015
The internet thinks that Vladimir #Putin is dead. I'm reasonably sure Kim Jong Un ate him. #ПутинУмер #PutinIsDead
— Damian Jansen (@dj_munky) March 13, 2015
Re: #PutinIsDead hysteria. Pray not. W this US regime's propensity for assassination as fp tool, suspicion would fall on US. WW3 anybody? — Mark Sleboda (@MarkSleboda1) March 12, 2015