For Sale: Putin's Dirty Laundry

Celebrities’ cast-offs are often coveted, but it can be hard to tell if you’re getting the real thing. Such doubts have arisen surrounding a shirt on sale that supposedly belonged to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president’s press-secretary, however, said not to believe the advert.

According to an ad on the internet, a shirt is for sale that allegedly belonged to President Putin, and, moreover, it’s unwashed. The shirt, size 48-50, was left in the Sheraton Hotel in Nizhny Novgorod, it was supposedly found during the cleaning of a room. President Putin was last in Nizhny Novgorod on October 10, 2019.

The seller has stated that there are no explicit marks on it to prove its provenance, but that he is prepared to submit it for examination, including DNA examination. He is asking for R146,000 (approximately $2,050).

Press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said the ad is not credible. In response to whether the president’s shirt could have been left behind, he stated, “No, this cannot be.”