Following Hitler's death, what motivated the Soviets to claim he was actually still alive?

by electric-presence

I've read that following news of Hitler's suicide, the Soviets engaged in a disinformation campaign to spread rumours that he had actually escaped Berlin, with Stalin himself apparently claiming he was in Spain or Argentina. What's not clear to me is why they would do that - what did the Soviets hope to gain by sowing seeds of doubt regarding Hitler's fate?

voyeur324

/u/Georgy_K_Zhukov and /u/commiespaceinvader have previously discussed the death of Hitler and disposition of his corpse in Episode #153 of the AskHistorians Podcast

See also Zhukov's previous comments: