Youth obsessed Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is now bankrolling the “world’s first” anti-aging vaccine.

Putin last week ordered his scientists to develop the forever-young vaccine, part of a budget of more than 2 trillion rubles — equivalent to more than $26 billion — for a national health project that includes the development of an anti-aging vaccine for a country facing a population decline.

Putin is 73, and well known to be obsessed with longevity.

The average age of death for a man in Russia is 67, compared to 76.5 in the US.

Deputy Minister of Science Denis Sekirinsky said researchers have developed a gene therapy targeting the RAGE or Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts — the cellular trigger linked to biological aging, according to the Moscow Times.

While this announcement has generated significant global attention, the US has also been deeply involved in similar and often more advanced anti-aging research, though it typically frames these as “longevity research” or “cellular reprogramming” rather than a single “vaccine.”

Blocking the receptor could effectively put aging on pause, or at least slow down the progression, Sekirinsky told a conference of over 300 doctors and health experts in Saransk.

The goal now is to create “the world’s first gene therapy drug” specifically designed to block the receptor, he added.

Russian research on RAGE receptors has involved both lab experiments and animal models to study inflammation and disease, but human trials have not been done. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Russia plans to begin producing the anti-aging drug between 2028 and 2030, reported The Moscow Times.

A source close to the Kremlin previously told the exiled news outlet Meduza that the project stemmed from what they described as an “obsessive idea” from Mikhail Kovalchuk, a Putin crony and head of the Kurchatov Institute for nuclear research, “who dreams of eternal life and the ‘genome of the Russian person.’”

“What some time ago we could describe as an incredible future is now becoming reality,” Golikova said.

During a meeting in September, Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, 72, were overheard on a “hot mic” moment discussing aging, according to NBC News.

Putin said, “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality.”

Xi’s interpreter then replied: “Predictions are, this century, there’s a chance of also living to 150 [years old].”

In 2022, the publication Proekt reported that Putin took antler baths — a health treatment in which a person immerses themselves in a warm infusion of the boiled young, unossified deer antlers. The antlers are harvested by cutting through the growing, nerve-rich velvet antler tissue while the deer is awake or inadequately sedated, causing them extreme pain.

For humans, the procedure purportedly improves the cardiovascular system and rejuvenates the skin..

The Russian president also takes long walks in the forest and eats a strict, low-sugar diet focused on protein, fish and fresh vegetables, while maintaining a daily workout schedule, swimming, judo and ice hockey.

Putin’s foes fear he has a quest to live and rule for many decades before handing the reign over to his eldest son Ivan Spirodonov, now only 11, according to MSN.