Vladimir Putin reappears after 10 day absence, laughs off ‘gossip’

STRELNA: 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 Kyrgystan at a lavish Tsarist-era palace outside St Petersburg in his first appearance since Feb. 5. 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.

During his absence, the Kremlin unexpectedly cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan and a meeting with officers of the successor to the KGB. Pictures were posted on the Kremlin website of meetings Putin had with public figures, which it later emerged had been taken several days earlier.

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

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