Putin’s $26bn longevity programme including cryotherapy, mini-pig organs and gene research

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has reportedly invested $26 billion in a state initiative called the New Health Preservation Technologies aimed at anti-ageing. The project includes gene therapy, organ-printing, mini-pig organ cultivation and even ultralow- temperature cryotherapy. This 2-trillion-ruble project is a flagship national scientific priority pushed by the Kremlin to halt biological decline and extend human lifespan.

The leaked hot-mic moment between Vladimir Putin and Xi

Putin has long projected an image of vitality through hunting, motorcycling and playing hockey. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, last September, during a military parade in Beijing, Vladimir Putin was caught in a hot-mic moment telling the Chinese President Xi Jinping that humans could replace organs to possibly extend lifespan and achieve immortality. The remark was considered a passing remark back then between ageing world leaders. But the program has now fuelled fresh speculation whether Putin, who is in his 80s, has taken this quest to preserve power. Not just Putin, Silicon Valley figures like Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel have shown interest in anti-ageing research.

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The state backed longeivity programe

This has now developed into a state-supported programme, last month the Russian government said scientists were developing a gene therapy designed to slow cellular ageing under the "New Health Preservation Technologies" initiative, a $26 billion programme linked to Putin. Russian Deputy Science Minister Denis Sekirinsky has described it as one of the most promising approaches to fighting anti-ageing. The initiative aims to save around 175,000 lives by the end of the decade, a close estimation of the number of soldiers lost in the war in Ukraine.

The programme focuses on bioprinting or 3D printing of living tissues, Xenotransplantation, which involves growing a human-compatible organ inside a genetically modified mini-pig and incorporates extreme-cold treatments, ultralow-temperature cryotherapy to reset and preserve bodily tissues.

The research project includes key figures like Maria Vorontsova, Putin's daughter and an endocrinologist involved in genetics programmes, and physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute. Alexander Ostrovskiy, a Russian researcher who works in bioprinting, said that officials may be presenting overly optimistic results to secure funding. Another researcher, Vladimir Khavinson, a gerontologist, received a state award for peptide-based anti-ageing treatments. He once said that humans could live up to 120 years. All of them are credible and credentialed scientists, but Russian academia has grown in isolation due to the sanctions by the West, so it has limited internationally recognised output.