MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. The claim made by Kirill Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department (GUR), that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using doubles is nonsense, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

"How could this ever be commented? As nonsense," the spokesman said, answering a question from TASS.

Earlier, Budanov made his claim about "Putin’s doubles" in his interview for The Daily Mail. The interview was partially published on the GUR’s official Telegram channel Monday.

Speaking in an interview for TASS in 2020, Putin himself said that the idea to involve doubles for his safety did come up in early 2000s, but he rejected it.