A side-by-side photo montage of the two Russians have emerged online giving rise to speculation that they are both the same man.

Yet it's not only because the two men share a similar name.

Truthseekers believe the great Rasputin – famed for his mythical faith healing powers and so-called affair with the King's wife – may have survived an assassination attempt in the early 1900s.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/576297/Putin-Rasputin-reincarnation-Vladimir-Russia-mad-monk-Grigori-conspiracy-theory