The New York Post's speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be suffering from cancer was sharply rebuffed by a Kremlin spokesman on Wednesday, Agence France-Press reported.

Dmitry Peskov minced no words as he denied the rumor and  told reporters the 62-year-old leader was just fine. "They shouldn't bank on (Putin being sick), Peskov said outside Moscow. "They should shut their trap. Everything's okay."

The New York Post suggested last week that an unnamed German doctor had treated Putin and diagnosed him with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, AFP recalled. The newspaper pointed to media reports "from Belarus to Poland" alleging the president had cancer of the spine.

The German daily Bild, meanwhile, said unnamed observers had noticed "signs" of an illness "in the recent past." The tabloid points to the pardon of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who had famously argued with the Russian president during a television meeting In February 2003 and been arrested eight months later on what many viewed as politically motivated charges.

Further, Bild notes, it was "surprising" that Putin hadn't worked on Oct. 7, his birthday, "for the first time in 15 years." Instead, "he spent the day in the Siberian Taiga, hundreds of kilometers away from civilization."

The German paper also quoted its Polish counterpart "Fakt," which suggested that his "aggressive foreign policy" of the past several months was due to a sick Putin desperately trying to leave behind a legacy. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 and has been accused of supporting separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine.

The reports are not the first time Putin's health has been called into question, AFP noted. Observers have noted that the leader "appeared to be in pain ... during public appearances" and that "his face ... sometimes looks swollen, prompting rumors he could be on a steroid medication."

Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov was forced to address concerns when Putin cut down on foreign travel and delayed a trip to Japan in 2012. The president was suffering from a "minor sports injury," Ivanov said at the time.