Putin resurfaces after absence
Spokesman dismisses rumors, says leader in good health
Russian President Vladimir Putin reappeared in public Monday after an absence of more than a week, commenting that things “would be boring without gossip.”
Rossiya 24, a state television station, showed Putin with the president of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, at a palace in St. Petersburg. The two discussed Kyrgyzstan’s planned accession to a Russian-backed regional trade group.
The meeting reportedly began more than an hour late, prolonging concerns about Putin’s whereabouts, a subject that has obsessed Russia for days.
Until Monday, the last confirmed public sighting of the Russian president had been at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on March 5. Putin abruptly canceled a trip to Kazakhstan and postponed a treaty signing with representatives from South Ossetia, who were reportedly told not to fly to Moscow. The Russian leader was also absent from an annual meeting of top officials from the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence service.
The rumor mill churned, and among the possible explanations were that Putin had fallen ill with a virulent strain of the flu, that he had surreptitiously flown to Switzerland for the birth of his love child, that he had had a stroke and that he had been ousted in a coup.
Dmitry Peskov, the president’s spokesman, brushed off the health questions, saying that Putin’s handshake was so firm it was bone-crushing and that the president had been busy working with official papers.
On Monday, Peskov mocked speculation about the president’s whereabouts, saying of Putin’s resurfacing: “Have you all seen the broken, paralyzed president, who has been kidnapped by generals? He’s only just flown in from Switzerland, where he attended a birth, as you know.”
During the meeting, Atambayev told members of the news media in St. Petersburg that he and Putin had toured the palace grounds and that the Russian leader was by all appearances in good health.
“With your permission, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I would like to add something here,” Atambayev said, addressing the Russian leader in front of the media. “Just now, Vladimir Vladimirovich drove me around the grounds, he was sitting behind the wheel himself. This was to dispel the rumors. I often hear different rumors about myself. This isn’t right. That is, the president of Russia not only walks, he races around, he gives guests rides.”
Putin’s departure from the public eye captivated Moscow’s political class, which was already uneasy from the war simmering in neighboring Ukraine and from the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Feb. 27.
Before reappearing in St. Petersburg on Monday, Putin ordered a military exercise in western and northern Russia that put the Northern Fleet, the Western Military District and some airborne forces on full combat preparedness, the Tass news agency reported. The exercise will test the readiness of 38,000 soldiers, 56 ships and submarines, and 110 planes and helicopters to defend Russia’s Arctic borders, Tass said.