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Putin makes first appearance in 11 days: 'It would be boring without gossip'
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“It would be boring without gossip.”
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
That pithy aside, delivered with a wry smile, may well be the only explanation the world will ever get from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, about his whereabouts for the past 11 days – an absence that launched a thousand rumours of ill-health, childbirth and even a palace coup.
Putin, looking jovial if somewhat pale, met with the Kyrgyz leader, Almazbek Atanbayev, in a St Petersburg palace on Monday, the first time he has been seen in public since 5 March. It puts an end to the more outlandish rumours over his absence, but there are still suggestions of a crack in Putin’s well-organised “power vertical” after the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov last month.
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Related: The latest explanation for Vladimir Putin's mystery disappearance … flu
Atambayev himself commented on the speculation over Putin’s health during their joint appearance, telling reporters: “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] has just driven me around the palace, and was behind the wheel himself, so there would be fewer rumours. He’s not only walking, he’s driving his guests around.”
According to the state-funded television network Russia Today, “the western media succumbed to hysteria” over Putin’s disappearance. But it was an absence that might not have raised so many eyebrows had it not been for the Kremlin’s clumsy attempts to cover it up.
Passing off photographs from meetings that took place days earlier as current events, the Kremlin announced that Putin had met the governor of Karelia on 11 March. Suspicions were not raised until eagle-eyed bloggers noted that local media in Karelia had, in fact, reported the meeting on 4 March.
A meeting in Astana with the president of Kazakhstan was cancelled, with local sources saying Putin had pulled out due to illness, and then denying it. He also missed the annual gathering of the top brass of Russia’s FSB security services, an event he has attended in previous years.
The president was engaged in continual meetings and was still so strong that he was “breaking hands” with his handshake, said Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week.
Russian television did little to dampen speculation, when it announced on Friday that the meeting between Putin and Atambayev had already taken place, offering no video footage. The news item was later dismissed as a technical error.
The information vacuum has led to all manner of rumours: Putin was in Switzerland with his mistress who had given birth; Putin was being treated by a Viennese back doctor; Putin had debilitating flu.
Others suggested he had retreated to think long and hard after a clan war had erupted between different branches of power following the killing of Nemtsov in Moscow last month, with some going as far as to make the unlikely claim that Putin had been deposed.
Whatever the truth, he was back in the limelight on Monday and showed no obvious signs of illness except for a somewhat pale complexion. Peskov made light of the rumours on Monday: “So, have you seen the president paralysed, and seized by the generals? He has just come back from Switzerland, where he attended the delivery [of the rumoured lovechild].” Asked about the Viennese osteopath, Peskov retorted: “Yes, the osteopath was with the generals.”
Joking aside, the media speculation and online hysteria during the interlude was a reminder of just how much in Russian political life depends on the wellbeing of the man at the top, and just how closely guarded details of his private life are.
Additionally, while Putin’s absence may have had nothing to do with the aftermath of Nemtsov’s murder, there is increasing evidence of a behind-the-scenes battle between different branches of the security services.
One of the men arrested over the hit, Zaur Dadayev, served in a battalion run by a close associate of the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, leading to speculation that Kadyrov or those close to him could have ordered the hit. Kadyrov himself wrote on his Instagram account that Dadayev was a “true patriot” of Russia, and doubted he could be involved.
One theory aired in Russian media in recent days is that Nemtsov’s murder has led to a standoff between two powerful groups in the Russian elite: Kadyrov and his clan, who have always had Putin’s personal backing, and top security officials who have been genuinely investigating the murder and are determined to test Kadyrov’s apparent invincibility.
These theories are lent credibility by an unusual series of leaks in various Russian publications which suggest that a secret struggle is ongoing. However, as with Putin’s health, the lack of reliable public information has led to a situation where all kinds of wild guesses are proffered with little hard evidence to back them up.
Putin has resurfaced at the beginning of a week in which major celebrations are planned to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. On Sunday evening, Russian television aired a long documentary dedicated to the events a year ago. In the film, Putin said he took personal charge of the Russian armed forces active on the peninsula, adding that nuclear forces were on standby had they been required.
On Monday morning, snap drills were announced for 38,000 troops serving in the north and west of Russia, presumably a further indication that the Kremlin is not willing to back down over the Ukraine crisis. Russia has continually denied its troops are active in Ukraine, despite evidence to the contrary. It also denied the “little green men” who appeared in Crimea were Russian troops, though Putin has now admitted that they were.
