Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government has promised to establish production of a drug against old age in 2028-2029. Its main client will be the aging leader of the Russian Federation.
Russia will soon have a drug against old age, said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. According to her, it will happen in 2028-2030. The developments are being carried out within the framework of the national project “New Technologies of Health Saving”, for the realization of which it is planned to spend 2 trillion rubles. “By the end of the project, our scientists expect to receive and implement medicines that restore aging cells and their functions,” Golikova said at the forum “Russia and the World: Trends of Healthy Longevity” (quoted by Interfax).
She added that in 2026-2027, “panels and test systems for determining biological age and aging processes of organs and tissues” should be developed. According to the deputy prime minister, this will further reduce the timeframe for diagnosing pre-aging risks and age-associated diseases and ensure the accuracy of such research. The first domestic device for the correction of cognitive and sensory disorders is also expected to be registered in early 2026. “A while ago we could say that this is an unbelievable future, but now it is already a reality that we are working with,” Golikova assured.
The launch of a new national project aimed at “saving health” and fighting aging was demanded by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early 2024. The initiative was realized a year later. The project is designed for five years. According to the government’s plan, it will “save 175,000 lives.”
A Meduza source close to the Kremlin said that the reason for the project was the “obsession” of Putin’s friend Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute, “multiplied by lobbyism.” “It was Misha Kovalchuk, who raves about eternal life and the ‘Russian genome,’ who ran all the way to the president,” the publication’s interlocutor noted.
Kovalchuk already oversees a federal program for domestic developments in genetics – Putin’s eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, participates in it. In March 2025, she was awarded a $30 million grant from the budget to work on life extension for the elderly.
Putin is 72 years old. Most of the country’s top officials are about the same age, and the average life expectancy for men in Russia is 67. Despite top-notch medical care, Putin is said to regularly take baths with an extract of blood extracted from Siberian deer antlers, as their extract supposedly has rejuvenating properties and can do wonders for male potency. Horns are cut from live deer once a year.
But not only folk methods are used. In January 2024, the head of the Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, Professor Vladimir Khavinson, whom the media called Putin’s “personal gerontologist”, died in St. Petersburg at the age of 77. The scientist dealt with the problems of aging and prolongation of active life, having registered 13 medicines and 64 types of peptide-based dietary supplements.
Putin from the very beginning of his presidency in every possible way sought to demonstrate masculinity and vigor, including being photographed with a bare torso and starring in staged scenes in which he dived to the bottom of the sea for amphorae, flew on a hang glider with Siberian cranes, led a column of bikers and sat at the wheel of a nuclear bomber. Russian propaganda still shapes Putin’s image as a macho and “alpha male.” For example, a March RIA Novosti publication said that Putin is “the living embodiment of an irresistible force that plays exclusively by its own rules” and that “his body language” influences even U.S. President Donald Trump, who previously demonstrated a “defensive stance, deference and even submission” in Putin’s presence.