Remember that surreal hot-mic moment when Vladimir Putin was caught on a live broadcast casually telling Chinese President Xi Jinping that humans could achieve immortality by continuously replacing their internal organs? At the time, the world laughed it off as bizarre sci-fi banter between ageing autocrats. It turns out he wasn't joking. He was describing an actual, multi-billion-dollar Kremlin flagship project.  A massive state-backed longevity initiative, dubbed the "New Health Preservation Technologies" program, has officially transitioned from a quiet obsession into Russia’s ultimate national priority.  Backed by a staggering $26 billion budget, the Kremlin is funding radical biological research that...