It looked like a scene from a Bond movie. Two aging autocrats, with a younger ally at their side, were walking down the red carpet before a military parade in Beijing when a microphone picked up the question that seemed to be on their minds: how long could they last and, between the lines, could science allow them to rule forever?
Encouraged by technological advances, Vladimir Putin assured Xi Jinping through an interpreter that "human organs can be constantly transplanted, to the point that people can become younger, perhaps even immortal."
The Chinese leader replied: "By the end of this century, people could live 150 years."
Nearby, North Korea's Kim Jong Un, three decades younger than the two seventy-two-year-olds, acknowledged this with a smile.
That moment in Beijing fueled speculation about the leaders' "shelf life" and, inevitably, talk about how far they would go in their attempts to stop the inexorable ticking of the clock.
For now, there is no sign that any of the three leaders intend to loosen their grip on power. Each seems prepared to rule for as long as their bodies last, and none has offered a clear succession plan.
Under constitutional changes, which he pushed through in 2020, Putin could remain in power until 2036, when he will be 83 years old - exceeding even Joseph Stalin's term.
Through a purge of allies and rivals alike, Xi has broken with the Communist Party's once-prescriptive tradition of grooming successors. In totalitarian North Korea, succession has traditionally been determined solely by death.
The pursuit of longevity among leaders is nothing new. Rulers have always sought ways to extend both their lives and their reigns.
The first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC), sent expeditions to the mythical Penglai Mountain in search of elixirs of eternal life—although the mercury potions he drank may have actually hastened his death.
Alexander the Great, legend says, wandered through the "Land of Darkness," a mythical and eternally dark forest, in search of the water of life.
Many centuries later, the Italian Silvio Berlusconi approached the same problem in his usual lavish manner - with hair transplants, cosmetic surgeries and blood treatments - in an attempt to appear invincible on the political scene.
Around the same time, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocratic president of Kazakhstan, ordered an institute in Astana to study “rejuvenation,” the human genome, and gene-based medicines.
“As for the medicine of the future, people my age really hope that all this will happen as soon as possible,” Nazarbayev lamented in a conversation with local Kazakh scientists in 2010.
Berlusconi eventually died at the age of 86, after battling a simple lung infection; Nazarbayev was ousted after unrest in Kazakhstan in 2022, and his family was removed from power; he is now 85.
Putin, who knew both men well, seems to be going even further - pursuing the most ambitious and lavishly funded path to longevity and the science of life extension.
The Russian leader has long been obsessed with health: he is said to rely on his team of doctors and resort to alternative medicine in the search for vitality.
However, those who study it say that this is not just about preserving health, but about extending life itself.
“In his conversation with Xi, Putin spoke about a topic that really interests him,” said Mikhail Rubin, a Russian journalist who recently co-authored a biography of the president. “It’s important to understand that at the time of that conversation, there was almost certainly a whole team of doctors somewhere nearby,” he added.
According to Rubin, there is little indication that Putin requires ongoing medical care; he appears healthy for his age, but he still travels regularly with a large entourage of doctors of various specialties.
"This suggests that the Russian president is preoccupied with his health and longevity," Rubin said.
"I believe that Putin dreams of ruling for many more years and has high hopes for the progress of modern medicine," he added.
Putin makes no secret of his fascination with extending life, and last Sunday he showed no discomfort in repeating his private thoughts on longevity at a press conference.
"Modern means and methods of improving health, and even various surgical procedures involving organ replacement, allow humanity to hope that life expectancy will be significantly extended," Putin told reporters in Beijing.
Mikhail Kovalchuk, a longtime family friend who is often described as Putin's favorite scientist, is reportedly leading Russia's immortality research.
According to the independent portal Meduza, Kovalchuk has founded several institutes with millions in state funds to invest in new technologies, including organ printing using cells grown in a lab to create replacement organs.
Putin's eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, a trained endocrinologist, has also received large government grants for research into extending human health and longevity, and is involved in a genetic research program associated with Kovalchuk.
The search for eternal life among Russia's aging elite has already seeped into the country's popular culture.
This was the basis of Russian writer Ivan Filipov's 2024 satirical novel, The Mouse, which is about an infected rodent who escapes from a scientific institute where researchers are developing a cure to extend Putin's life.
“To be honest, I wasn’t that surprised (by Putin’s statements recorded by the microphone),” Filipov told The Guardian.
"Because my story is born from reality. And with Putin it's obvious: he is practically obsessed with the idea of living forever, or at least longer than he was destined to," he said.
"In my book, that obsession ends badly for everyone," Filipov added.
Translation: NB
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