Speculation about the whereabouts of Putin are swirling with theories of Kremlin coups.

Russia was ready to bring

MOSCOW its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year’s tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine’s president, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday.

Putin also expanded on a previous admission that the well- armed forces in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea were Russian soldiers.

Putin’s comments, in a documentary being shown on state TV, highlight the extent to which alarm spread in Russia in the weeks following Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster in February 2014 after months of street protests that turned increasingly violent.

After Yanukovych fled Kyiv, eventually surfacing in Russia, separatist sentiment soared in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula dominated by ethnic Russians.

Russian forces took control of Ukrainian military facilities on the peninsula and a referendum on secession was hastily called. The referendum, which was widely denounced in the West as illegitimate, reportedly brought overwhelming support for secession. Russia annexed Crimea on March 19, 2014.

In the documentary Putin says of the nuclear preparedness, “We were ready to do this ... ( Crimea) is our historical territory. Russian people live there. They were in danger. We cannot abandon them.”

The comments were reported on the state broadcaster’s website after its transmission in the Russian Far East and before it appeared on the air in Moscow.

The documentary comes as speculation swirls about Putin’s 10- day absence from public view. On Monday, he is expected to meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan in an event covered by the news media, which would be his first appearance before journalists since March 5.

Speculation about the whereabouts of Putin are swirling with theories of bloody Kremlin coups, secret births or sudden deaths.

But Sunday, the reality appeared as if it might be a little more prosaic: maybe the Russian president was just in bed with a bad cold.

The opposition television station Dozhd reported Putin had come down with the flu, and was recuperating at one of his country residences outside Moscow, citing anonymous sources.