Since Vladimir Putin vanished from public life 10 days ago, the speculation surrounding the Russian president has been nothing if not dramatic. One rumour claimed he had died. Another wondered if some cosmetic surgery had gone wrong. Yet another placed him in Switzerland for the birth of a secret lovechild.
The reality – a new report suggested on Sunday – may be rather less sensational: Putin, claimed the independent news channel TV Rain, had simply gone down with flu.
Quoting unnamed sources, TV Rain said the Russian leader, who is 62, had retreated to his secluded lakeside residence in Valdai, roughly midway between Moscow and St Petersburg. In what would be his first high-profile event since March 5th, Mr Putin is scheduled to speak with the president of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in St Petersburg on Monday.
On Sunday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Mr Putin's whereabouts or whether he had flu, saying only "the topic is closed". He added that on Sunday night Mr Putin would watch a new state television documentary about the annexation of Crimea. The trailer has revealed that in the film Mr Putin says plans to take back Crimea were launched after the ousting of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and were not just a response to a local referendum, as the Kremlin has claimed in the past.
The president has not been seen in public since a press conference a week-and-a-half ago with the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi.
A summit in Astana, scheduled to start on Thursday, with the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was cancelled at the last minute. A source in the Kazakh government told Reuters that Mr Putin had fallen ill.
Mr Peskov told radio station Ekho Moskvy on Wednesday that Mr Putin was healthy and was constantly in meetings. Asked about the president’s handshake, he said it “breaks hands”.
Although the presidential website published photographs last week of Mr Putin holding meetings in the Kremlin, local media reported that the meetings had actually happened the week before.
On Friday, Russian television channels showed Mr Putin speaking to the president of the supreme court, but doubts remained whether the footage was fresh.
Mr Putin, who is fiercely secretive about his private life, has built an image of a robust, active leader with shirtless photo-ops and high-octane stunts. But he was seen limping after flying a deltaplane with Siberian cranes in 2012, raising concerns about his health.
A variety of ever more outlandish rumours have sprung up to explain Mr Putin’s uncharacteristic absence, and a hashtag meaning “Putin died” was trending on Russian Twitter last week. It was followed by a website of the same name and a variety of other memes.
Some on Twitter wondered if Mr Putin was suffering from a botched Botox injection, which he is widely believed to receive.
After he did not attend a meeting last week with the leadership of the FSB intelligence agency, some speculated that his withdrawal could be tied to the murder of the opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, in front of the Kremlin at the end of February.
That killing has reportedly sparked a power struggle between the FSB and the security forces of the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, one of whose men is accused of the shooting.
The Swiss tabloid Blick even claimed that Mr Putin was likely in Ticino, where gymnast-turned-MP Alina Kabayeva, who has long been rumoured to be his love interest, was said to be giving birth to their lovechild. Mr Peskov was quoted as denying the claim, adding: "Information about the birth of Vladimir Putin's child does not correspond to reality." – (Guardian service)