Did Vladimir Putin Pull a Don Draper?

Despite Peskov’s best efforts, the theories about what could be behind Putin’s mysterious absence have continued to swirl

Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t been seen in public since March 5, and depending on whom you ask, he’s either dead, has had a stroke, has cancer, is being overthrown in a palace coup, or, contrary to his spokesperson’s denials Friday, has been out of the public eye because he has fathered a lovechild.

“Information that a child has been born to Vladimir Putin is not true,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Forbes Russia. “I am planning to appeal to people who have money to organize a competition for the best journalistic hoax,” he added.

Speculation on Putin’s whereabouts began when he canceled a high-level trip to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and then several other meetings this week, including the signing of a treaty with South Ossetia and an appearance at a meeting of top brass at the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence service. Putin’s absence has sent the Russian Twitterverse and media into overdrive, sparking the trending hashtag  #ПутинУмер (Putin Died), as well as a cottage industry of theories — some absurd and others more believable believable — to explain what is keeping the usually omnipresent Russian president from the public eye.

Peskov, meanwhile, has been on the offensive, steadfastly denying the Russian rumormill — often with colorful details. After shooting down rumors about Putin’s ill-health earlier this week on the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Peskov added that “his handshake is so strong he breaks hands with it.”

Yet despite Peskov’s best efforts, the theories about what could be behind Putin’s mysterious absence have continued to swirl. The Kremlin’s website has been posting photos of the Russian president attending meetings during his physical absence, but the Russian news outlet RBC investigated Putin’s schedule and found discrepancies. According to RBC, the meeting with the governor of the northwestern region of Karelia, reported on the official site as having taken place on March 11, had actually occurred a week earlier, and a Karelian website had actually already written about it on March 4. On Thursday, the Kremlin claimed that Putin spoke on the phone with  Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Sargsyan’s website issued the call with an identical transcript.

On Friday, the Kremlin issued three images showing Putin in a meeting with the head of the Supreme Court in Moscow on Friday. The state television channel, Rossiya 24, also aired video footage of the meeting. However, the dates of those photos have not been confirmed, and the footage have not been authenticated.

In all likelihood, Putin is alive, relatively healthy, and in Moscow. But the global hysteria points to how little is currently known about how the Kremlin actually functions. It’s also representative of the political fallout from the Feb. 27 assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.

In the weeks since Nemtsov’s death, cracks have begun to appear…(read more)

Foreign Policy

Related articles

• Kremlin Mystery: Putin Slips From Public View (valuewalk.com)
• Putin is ‘absolutely’ healthy, spokesman says, denying rumours of ill health (cbc.ca)
• Putin reportedly reappears! (uk.businessinsider.com)
• Putin critic gunned-down (heraldsun.com.au)
• Russia: Jew Opposition Boris Nemtsov Leader Killed (dailyslave.com)
• Boris Nemtsov’s Killers Tried to Destabilize Russia – Gorbachev (sputniknews.com)
• Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov shot dead in Moscow (panarmenian.net)
• Unexplained Deaths, ‘Suicidings’, ‘Accidents’, Plots & Assassinations :: 27Feb15 -Boris Nemtsov opposition boss gunned down in Moscow (911forum.org.uk)