CHICAGO, Ill. — Multiple witnesses confirmed seeing the spitting image of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Chicago on Saturday, Duffel Blog has learned.

The unexpected sighting comes on the heels of Putin’s reappearance in St. Petersburg Monday, where he met with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev after an unexplained 11-day absence from the public spotlight.

If substantiated, the claim could embroil the truant politician in further controversy while raising the question, just who exactly was the man previously addressing the public?

“Is no need to speculation,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov calmly asserted. “Simply drunk guy who look like president at parade. Mr. President is not even – how you say – Irish.”