\u201cIn the past, we used to say that very rarely people lived to 70, but these days at 70 years old you\u2019re still a child,\u201d a Russian translator of Xi could be heard telling Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a few years, with the development of biotechnology, human organs can be constantly transplanted so that people can live younger and younger, and even become immortal,\u201d Putin responded, according to a Chinese translator.<\/p>\n
Xi then predicted: \u201cIn this century, humans may live to 150 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin later confirmed the conversation<\/a> at a news conference with Russian reporters, saying that \u201cmodern means of health support, medicine, and even some surgeries involving organ transplants allow humanity to hope that the active lifespan will not be like today. It differs from country to country, but there\u2019s hope that our lifespan can increase considerably.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know about Russia\u2019s and China\u2019s investments in anti-aging.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s obsession<\/p>\n Putin has a \u201cparticularly acute\u201d fear of death, Peter Pomerantsev, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s SNF Agora Institute, wrote for TIME in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n While there have been unsubstantiated rumors over the years that he has cancer or Parkinson\u2019s disease, the Russian President who is serving his record-breaking fifth term is said to be paranoid about his personal health, reportedly even bathing in Siberian red deer\u2019s blood<\/a> and subjecting visitors to two-week quarantines<\/a> to avoid bringing him disease.<\/p>\n His government has also invested heavily in anti-aging research, including via Putin\u2019s eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, who has received multi-million grants<\/a> for her studies into cellular aging and longevity. When the U.S. issued sanctions against Putin\u2019s children in 2022, the Treasury described Vorontsova<\/a> as someone who \u201cleads state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Putin called for a \u201cnational project\u201d to \u201cpreserve the health\u201d of the country. The result was the New Technologies for Health Preservation<\/a> program, which has the goal to \u201cincrease the efficiency and effectiveness of medical research and development\u201d in several areas, including \u201cregenerative biomedicine, preventive medicine technologies, ensuring active and healthy longevity.\u201d State-run TASS said about 210 billion Russian rubles<\/a> ($2.6 billion) will be poured into the project through 2030.<\/p>\n Independent Russian news outlet Meduza reported<\/a> that Mikhail Kovalchuk, who is a close friend of Putin and is \u201cobsessed with immortality and the \u2018Russian genome,\u2019\u201d lobbied for the project. Kovalchuk oversees<\/a> Russia\u2019s genetic research program where Vorontsova works.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s Health Ministry reportedly asked researchers in a June 2024 letter to provide \u201cproposals for developments\u201d in several longevity-related research areas, including cellular aging, bioprinting and organ printing, and even \u201ccorrecting\u201d the immune system based on \u201ccritical markers identified in the aging process.\u201d One unnamed doctor described to Meduza the apparent urgency of the project: \u201cThey asked us to fast-track all of our proposals\u2014it felt like the letter had just arrived today and the deadline was yesterday. To be honest, it was the first time I\u2019d seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bioprinting, which Putin seemed to reference to Xi, faces ethical and legal concerns<\/a>, but Russia has ramped up its investment in it. Rosatom, the state corporation that specializes in nuclear energy but also oversees organ-printing, previously said<\/a> it hopes to master organ-printing by 2030, including producing blood vessels or even livers. Russian newspaper Kommersant reported in 2023<\/a> that the government had spent 57.3 million rubles (almost $700,000) on bioprinters and bioinks, a 47-fold increase from five years prior.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Russian private sector is also making strides in anti-aging technology and chasing immortality: a 3D printing startup in Skolkovo implanted a 3D-printed thyroid gland into a mouse in 2015<\/a> and became the first<\/a> to create live tissue in space in 2018\u2014as part of a drive towards printing organs for humans. And Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov founded the 2045 Initiative<\/a>, a life-extension project that envisions uploading human consciousness into computer avatars.<\/p>\n China\u2019s research<\/p>\n While less obsessed with immortality than Putin\u2019s government, Xi\u2019s China has also invested in aging research<\/a>, as the country has the world\u2019s largest elderly population.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2016, the Chinese government launched the Major Program on Organ Aging and Degeneration<\/a>, an initiative focused on studying cellular and molecular mechanisms of aging. And the state-funded Chinese Academy of Sciences published studies last year<\/a> and this year<\/a> on reversing aging in primates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Is the U.S. falling behind?<\/p>\n Historically, there\u2019s been concern in the U.S. that China would take the lead in biotechnological advancements. \u201cCurrently, the U.S. government has no cohesive, intentional biotechnology strategy,\u201d said<\/a> the U.S. National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology in April, \u201cwhile China is gaining ground thanks to its aggressive and carefully coordinated state-led initiatives.\u201d <\/p>\n