Scoffing at health ‘rumors,’ Putin reappears after 10-day absence
Print Edition
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday dismissed days of frenzied “rumors” over his health and whereabouts as he reappeared in public after an unusually long 10-day absence.
The feverish speculation fuelled by social media saw all eyes turn to an otherwise unexceptional meeting planned between Putin and the leader of Kyrgyzstan to see whether the Russian strongman would appear.
The typically tardy Putin was two hours late but showed up looking relaxed with no visible signs of ill-health, quelling the rumors that exposed 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 Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at the sumptuous Konstantinov’s Palace just outside Saint Petersburg.
In an apparent bid to dispel speculation about his host’s ill health, Atambayev said Putin had taken him for a drive around the palace grounds before their meeting. Dismissing the rumors, a smiling Atambayev said: “In their dreams.”
Putin, 62, was last seen in public on March 5 at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
However, 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.
While the Kremlin continued to release footage of Putin in meetings, many speculated that it had been filmed much earlier than when it was broadcast.
The Internet and even traditional media in Europe were set abuzz with speculation Putin had died, been deposed in a palace coup or had once again become a father.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was forced to fend off countless questions about each rumor, which he dismissed as “March madness.”
He said Putin was busy with Russia’s economic crisis and has “meetings constantly, but not all meetings are public.”
Peskov yesterday said Putin had driven his guest around the palace for about 15 minutes.
“So everyone has now seen the paralyzed president captured by generals who has just returned from Switzerland where he was delivering a baby?” he asked sarcastically. “We no longer want to talk about this. Everything is good.”
Putin’s reappearance comes as Russia marks the one-year anniversary of a referendum in Crimea that led to Russia annexing the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine and froze Moscow’s ties with the West.
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