Vladimir Putin appears to have returned to business as usual after a days-long absence from public life.
As the Washington Post pointed out Thursday, the Russian president had the rumor mill working overtime when he failed to show up at one of his usual gatherings.
From the Post:
Putin’s absence at the FSB meeting comes just a day after he unexpectedly canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. “The visit has been canceled. It looks like he [Putin] has fallen ill,” an anonymous Kazakh official told Reuters afterward, prompting a flurry of speculation.
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.
Individuals began speculating about the reason for these absences. There were whispers that Putin had suffered a stroke, while others supposed that the Russian leader had undergone plastic surgery (?!).
However, the Kremlin put rumors about Putin’s unexplained vacation from the public sphere — which began as early as March 5 — to rest when it released photos of the president meeting with Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev outside Moscow Friday.
Russian television also screened video of the leader conducting the meeting, according to The Guardian.
Of course, considering the photo of Putin’s rendezvous with the regional governor of Karelia released Wednesday by the Kremlin was not actually snapped Wednesday, there is undoubtedly suspicion that the “Friday” event could have occurred at an earlier date.
Perhaps Putin is getting that face lift after all.
At least one thing is for certain: This body is definitely not being threatened by gout, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly was during his own mysterious absence.
