Vladimir Putin confirms why he still doesn't have a mobile phone

Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed he does not use a mobile phone.

During an interview with the TASS state news agency, Putin said he had access to a special official phone that could connect with any number he wanted.

It is not the first time the Russian leader had admitted he avoids smartphones.

He has proudly declared he refuses to have one on multiple occasions.

In 2010 he revealed his apparently technophobic view of smartphones, declaring he didn't want one because "it would ring all the time."

His avoidance of cellphones has fixated Russian audiences.

A popular Russian tabloid speculated in 2003 that if the leader wants to make a call, he simply takes the nearest one from one of his security officers.

Mr Putin, 67, who has dominated Russian politics for more than two decades, has long been the subject of conspiracy theories - all of them unsubstantiated.

One in particular claims that he uses a body double or even a small army of them.

One of the more elaborate theories compares photographs of Mr Putin over the years, claiming to have identified a number of different individuals posing as him.

During the same interview aired today, the leader was shown a list of popular Internet searches purportedly associated with his name, one of which was entitled “Putin body double evidence”.

Mr Putin acknowledged he was offered the chance to use a body double to make appearances in public for security reasons, but said he declined the offer and never used one.

Asked “Are you real?” by the interviewer, Mr Putin replied “yes” before going on to deny that he uses a lookalike for public appearances for his own safety.

But he said he had been offered the opportunity.

“I declined these body doubles. This (the offer) was during the most difficult periods of the fight against terrorism,” he said.

He added that he was referring to the beginning of the 2000s, when Russia fought a war in the southern Muslim majority region of Chechnya in the early years of his first term and was frequently targeted in attacks by Islamist militant groups.