Putin laughs off ‘rumors’ over his unusually long 10-day absence

SAINT PETERSBURG—Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday laughed off days of frenzied “rumors” over his health and whereabouts as he reappeared in public after an unusually long 10-day absence.

Emerging after days of speculation that he was either ill or had even been deposed in a palace coup, Putin met with the leader of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan just outside Saint Petersburg.

The typically tardy Putin was two hours late but showed up looking relaxed with no visible signs of ill-health, quelling the rumors that had nevertheless highlighted the fragility of Russia’s tightly-controlled political system dominated by one man.

“We would be bored if there were no rumors,” Putin said as he met Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev at the sumptuous Konstantinov’s Palace outside Saint Petersburg.

In an apparent bid to prove Putin was fit, Atambayev said the Russian leader had taken him for a drive around the palace grounds before their meeting.

“In their dreams,” said a smiling Atambayev, referring to the rumors the president was sick.

Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who has had to fend off countless questions from the media in recent days over the leader’s absence, took delight in mocking the rumors.

“So everyone has now seen the paralyzed president captured by generals who has just returned from Switzerland where he was delivering a baby,” he quipped.

“We no longer want to talk about this. Everything is good.”

The usually omnipresent Putin, 62, had last been seen in public on March 5 at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The rumor mill went into overdrive when he cancelled a number of scheduled events last week, including a trip to the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan and the planned signing of an alliance agreement with the breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia.

While the Kremlin kept releasing footage of Putin in meetings, many speculated that the footage had been filmed much earlier than when it was broadcast.

The Internet and foreign media lit up with speculation that Putin had died, had been deposed or that his rumored girlfriend, a former Olympics gymnast, had secretly had a baby in Switzerland.

Morbid jokes and gags spread on Russian social networks—one of the last bastions of free speech in Russia—and the hashtag #Putinumer (#Putindead) trended on Twitter.