Vladimir Putin reappears after 11 days out of public view

Russian president Vladimir Putin reappeared on Monday after 11 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 March 5th. His unexplained absence had fuelled rumours 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 and looking relaxed, if pale, in a dark suit and tie.

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, mocked the press for its interest, referring sarcastically to the various rumours: “So you’ve seen the broken, paralysed 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 carefully choreographed double-act, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev also vouched for the Russian leader’s health, saying that Mr Putin “just now drove me around the grounds; he himself sat at the wheel.”

Typically, Mr Putin is shown most days on state-controlled television, meeting officials in Moscow or travelling to Russia’s far-flung regions.

The absence began a week after an opposition leader was gunned down outside the Kremlin walls, adding to an ominous atmosphere in a country suffering from an economic crisis worsened by international sanctions imposed over Putin’s decision to intervene in neighbouring Ukraine.

Throughout his absence Russian officials had said Mr Putin had been working. Mr Peskov said he had answered “10 times over” what Mr Putin was doing during his absence from live appearances. “It is impossible to say anymore,” he said.

Mr Putin remains hugely popular in Russia, which has experienced a surge of nationalist sentiment fuelled by state-run media since Mr Putin sent troops to seize Ukraine’s Crimea region a year ago.

Reuters