Where's Putin?

[Itse]

I don't know if they've followed this in Canada. Probably Putin will just turn up again without explanation, but it's an interesting snapshot into how personalized authoritarian regimes operate.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...sparks-rumors/

Everyone has their off days, but when you're the proudly virile and uncontested leader of one of the most-watched countries in the world, your days off make people nervous. Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't been seen for days, and now people are beginning to wonder why.

The situation has sent state-run media inside Russia into a tailspin of failures, and has been a PR disaster to their credibility.

To make matters more confusing, on Wednesday the Kremlin released an image of Putin meeting with the regional governor of Karelia. But local Web site Vesti Karelii reported that Putin actually had met with the head of the Republic of Karelia, Alexander Khudilainen, on March 4. In fact, RBC.ru reported that a number of events posted by the Kremlin appeared to have been recycled from earlier events. If this is correct, the last time Putin was seen in public may have been March 5, when he met the Italian prime minister in Moscow.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/russia...-future-2015-3

Russian state TV just published news from the future.
On Friday, Rossiya 24 reported a meeting between Russian president Vladminir Putin and Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev — even though the meeting is on Monday.

Rumours are going wild in Moscow. One popular theory suggests he's already dead, and the news blackout is only to keep the power struggle for his follower behind the scenes.

[nik-]

hopefully dead

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by nik-

hopefully dead

Understatement of the day

[OMG!WTF!]

Last month he was threatening to reveal proof that 9/11 was an inside job. Maybe he got suicided like all the other whistleblowers.

[Huntingwhale]

Flu

[Street Pharmacist]

North Korea trying to help out:

"@DPRK_News: Russian president Putin at Pyongyang house of martial instruction, for friendly bout with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. http://t.co/Bw3L8Ic8om"

[darockwilder]

Probably in deep cover searching for the assassin....

In order to pay him

[Locke]

There he is! Wait...

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

North Korea trying to help out:

"@DPRK_News: Russian president Putin at Pyongyang house of martial instruction, for friendly bout with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. http://t.co/Bw3L8Ic8om"

I would pay top dollar to see this. Putin would beat the tar out of him

[Kavvy]

The crazy part of this is that there is probably equal chance he is dead or just trolling.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

Last month he was threatening to reveal proof that 9/11 was an inside job. Maybe he got suicided like all the other whistleblowers.

I'm assuming this was meant to be in green text?

[handgroen]

destabilization of russia's government may be worse than having him at the helm IMO

[CaptainCrunch]

If he was dead, we'd probably be hearing about troop movements into major Russian cities, or even a higher alert status by their airforce.

The Russians' are a funny bunch when it comes to the art of paranoia.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

If he was dead, we'd probably be hearing about troop movements into major Russian cities, or even a higher alert status by their airforce.

The Russians' are a funny bunch when it comes to the art of paranoia.

My thoughts too, we'd see a lot more than confused state media if he was even suspected of being dead.

[Locke]

I present to you the new leader of Russia!!

[JonDuke]

Best press secretary quote ever.

“No need to worry, everything is all right. He has working meetings all the time, only not all of these meetings are public,” Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio. He added that the president is “absolutely healthy” and that “his handshake is so strong he breaks hands with it.”

[bc-chris]

[RW99]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

Best press secretary quote ever.

[Itse]

When the rumours are on the level of "is he dead, seriously ill or possible removed from power", they are already damaging his position as a leader.

In an authoritarian regime, any suggestion that the leader might be gone soon is blood in the water, and the ensuing power struggles can seriously damage a regime's ability to operate. Under normal circumstances Putin would have already made a public appearance to kill these rumours. Standing on his own two feet for a couple of minutes and speak two coherent sentences is enough for this purpose, so it's not like some flu could be the case here.

Of course the other option is that Putin is SO confident of his power that he simply went fishing for a couple of weeks and gave orders not to bother him unless Russian soil is attacked.

But really I think one of the most likely suggestions is that he's had cosmetic surgery and has to wait for the scars to heal before turning up again. He is after all a very image conscious president. If that's the case it mostly speaks well of his ability to kill gossip leaks.

Interesting situation in any case.

[GP_Matt]

If it was as something planned in advance I would assume there would be coherent excuses prearranged and possibly fake video.
I think it is health related or he had a spur of the moment desire for a vacation and told everyone to wait for his return.