Trump Russia Fiona Hill Advisor Fiona Hill Describes Putin Dinner

A former US National Security Council official has described a strange encounter at dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin – who “smelled almost like he’d stepped out of a special prep bath.”

Fiona Hill, who served as an adviser on Russia under then-President Donald Trump, took to the tough man during a recent meeting with BBC Sounds’ Desert Island Discs show.

“Well, that sounds really bizarre, but I could smell it was freshly washed,” she said. “He wasn’t wearing cologne, but it was almost like he’d stepped out of a special prep bath or something.

“He just nailed it, projecting that image, I was like, ‘Wow, look at that!'” Hill recalled.

“All of this is staged, every little element of it is staged — this is a performance.”

Hill also noted the Kremlin leader’s tightly controlled demeanor.

“I noticed the suits, one of the finely tailored suits, like the little vein pulsing on the left side of his face,” she said to host Lauren Laverne.

“It struck me right away that like all of us, he really could have used glasses because he had these huge cards. I could read them all, cards telling him who was who and what to say and things like that.”

The former state security officer also recalled that the brutal Russian leader neither ate nor drank.

“I noticed he wasn’t eating or drinking. I watched the watch on his wrist – very expensive,” she said, adding that Putin is “not a great conversationalist” and hardly looks at it during meals.

It’s unclear exactly when the dinner took place, although Hill told Desert Island Discs that it happened while she was working as a national intelligence officer, which she did as a Russia and Eurasia analyst from 2006 to 2009.

Hill’s observations come amid a spate of reports about Putin’s health.

Anti-Kremlin Telegram account General SVR claimed he recently underwent surgery to remove fluid from his abdomen.

It is also alleged that Putin’s surgery and subsequent recovery were covered up using “deepfake” technology to simulate his presence in videos of a scheduled Russian Security Council meeting.

The outlet’s claims have not been verified.

Last week, the mysterious broadcaster also claimed that Putin took pre-recordings to cover up future operations and plans to use body doubles if necessary.

In April, the Russian investigative agency The Project reported that the leader was regularly visited by an oncologist and speculated that he was suffering from thyroid cancer.

The report also included a host of other complaints, from hockey injuries to back pain following an equestrian incident.

According to the report, Putin bathed in blood obtained from deer antlers that are chopped off as they grow and are still full of fresh blood. The disgusting “antler baths” are an alternative therapy in the Altai region of Russia.

Speculation about Putin’s health continued when he was videotaped fidgeting, keeping his distance from his subordinates or otherwise acting oddly in public.