President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has angrily dismissed a Pentagon study that claimed the Russian leader had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.
"That is stupidity not worthy of comment," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Gazeta.ru news website late on Thursday.
His comments came after USA Today reported that a 2008 study carried out by an internal Pentagon think tank, the Office of Net Assessment, suggested that Putin has Asperger's syndrome, giving him a need to exert "extreme control" on his surroundings and is uncomfortable with social interaction.
The Pentagon played down the study, saying it apparently never made its way to the desk of the defence secretary or other top decision makers.
Experts studying his movements and facial expressions in video footage theorised that Putin's neurological development was disrupted in infancy, giving him a sense of physical imbalance and a discomfort with social interaction.
"This profound behavioural challenge has been identified by leading neuroscientists as Asperger's Syndrome, an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions," wrote the study's author, Brenda Connors, a senior fellow at the US Naval War College.
"During crisis, to stabilise himself and his perceptions of any evolving context he reverts to imposing extreme control," wrote Connors, who has analysed the body language of other world leaders.
USA Today first revealed the study in a report on Wednesday, following a Freedom of Information request.
Putin's condition also can prompt him to "withdraw from social stimulation as he did at the time of the Kursk nuclear submarine incident" in 2000, when a Russian sub sank in the Barents Sea, the study claimed.
The theory about Putin's condition could not be definitively confirmed without a brain scan, the report said. But experts cited the Russian president's body movements and "microexpressions" as indicators of Asperger's.
The Pentagon study claimed Putin's unrelenting stare reflected a neurological abnormality and an inability to pick up on social cues.
His condition meant that Putin would display a "hypersensitivity" and "a strong reliance on the fight, flight and freeze responses" instead of a more nuanced social behaviour, it said.
Putin is uncomfortable presenting his ideas to "large audiences" and his neurological "challenge" meant that he "simply lacks trust in human interactions", it said.
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