Plan B Forum

Vladimir Putin missing: Rumours suggest president has flu and is lying low at Valdai outside Moscow

It may not be quite what his admirers wanted to hear, but Russia was last night abuzz with a new explanation for Vladimir Putin’s mysterious 10-day disappearance from public view: Russia’s strongman leader had ‘flu.

A report to that effect by the independent Dozhd TV was widely repeated on social media as the world continued to speculate on the reason for the Russian president’s low profile. He was said to be lying low at his official Valdai residence outside Moscow, an explanation backed by Russian journalists who noted that there were flight restrictions surrounding the area, making it Mr Putin’s likeliest location.

If true, it would provide a more prosaic reason for the president’s absence than other suggestions, which include a palace coup against him after an internal power struggle, a graver illness and a trip to Lugano, Switzerland to support his alleged girlfriend, gymnast-turned-lawmaker Albina Kabaeva, while she gave birth to their child.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly denied there is anything amiss with the president, rolling his eyes at each conspiracy theory that has come his way since Mr Putin’s last public appearance on 5 March. He said the childbirth story “does not correspond with reality”. On Sunday he did not directly deny the new rumour, instead telling Dozhd TV that the “subject [of Mr Putin’s health] is closed”.

Despite official insistence of nothing untoward, Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, warned on Twitter today: “It is NOT normal for heads of state to disappear for several days, especially those with nuclear weapons.”

Russian media continued to churn out headlines about the president’s activities, citing pre-recorded comments by Mr Putin in a documentary on the annexation of Crimea as if they were fresh. They included: “Putin has declared that sanctions are needed against organisers of coups” and “Putin: we were prepared to use nuclear weapons” on the news portal Gazeta.ru.

Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, called the growing speculation that the president had fallen ill “wishful thinking” more indicative of Western fears than a state of doom in Russia.

Other commentators offered a darker explanation, drawing parallels with a stunt in 1564. “Recall how Ivan the Terrible unexpectedly vanished from Moscow to make his subjects realise how ‘bad’ it was to live without him… in what looked like a ploy to strengthen support for his rule as he contemplated new drastic measures,” noted Simon Saradzhyan, assistant director of the US-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism at Harvard’s Belfer Centre.

Mr Putin is due to meet the President of Kyrgyzstan in St Petersburg on Monday.

Long Run wrote:I thought he was meeting our president in a bunker in the Jordan Valley.

Sue U wrote:

Long Run wrote:I thought he was meeting our president in a bunker in the Jordan Valley.

No spoilers! (I've only gotten through Episode 3.)

Guinevere wrote:You are way, way, way behind. Hurry it up already.

Russia's Putin reappears after 10 day absence, laughs off 'gossip'

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin reappeared on Monday after 10 unexplained days out of public view, laughing off the "gossip" over his health that had erupted during his absence.

The 62-year-old leader met the president of Kyrgyzstan at a lavish Tsarist-era palace outside St Petersburg in his first appearance since Feb. 5. His absence had fueled rumors he was ill, had been overthrown by the army or had even flown abroad to attend the birth of a love child.

"It would be boring without gossip," Putin said, smiling easily before television cameras. He looked relaxed, if pale.

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, mocked the press for its interest, referring sarcastically to the various rumors: "So you've seen the broken, paralyzed president, who has been captured by generals? He's only just flown in from Switzerland, where he attended a birth as you know."

In a choreographed double-act, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev vouched for the Russian leader's health, saying that Putin "just now drove me around the grounds; he himself sat at the wheel."

Putin's return to public view coincided with Russia's biggest military exercises since ties with the West sank to a post-Cold War low over the Ukraine crisis.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Putin had ordered nearly 40,000 troops to be at combat readiness for exercises in Russia's Arctic North and elsewhere, which appeared meant to dwarf war games in neighboring NATO-member Norway.