There's a rumor that Putin is dead

[Berean]

There's a rumor that Putin is dead

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

GLENN KATES, RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY

MAR. 12, 2015, 2:35 PM 43,096 50


Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public since March 5.



And with little further information to go by — his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said simply that there is "no reason to worry" and "everything is fine" — some have naturally assumed the most drastic possible thing that could have happened is what did happen.



"Putin umer" or "Putin has died," is now trending on the Russian Internet.







Full story, pictures of tweets, and more here.

[Berean]

More:


Unconfirmed Russian Internet rumors that Vladimir Putin is dead

DEBKAfile March 12, 2015, 11:03 AM (IDT)


DEBKAfile reports that Russian websitesThursday morning began running unconfirmed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suddenly died. This has not been confirmed by any official in Moscow. But a short announcement of Putin’s death was seen briefly on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s website early Thursday, only to be removed after 20 minutes. According to officials in Moscow, Putin was expected in Kazakhstan Thursday for meetings with its leaders, but failed to turn up.


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[Berean]

Definitely weird. A lot of us think he's Gog, so it's interesting to speculate on what would happen if he died - who is the real Gog?



March 12, 2015



There Is Something Very Strange About The Vladimir Putin Death Hoax Story



By Susan Duclos – All News PipeLine





By all accounts the Internet rumor that Russian President Vladimir Putin died is nothing more than a hoax started with a Facebook Page titled “‘R.I.P. Vladimir Putin,” which garnered almost 1 million likes when it hit the Internet on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. The ‘About’ page stated the following:



“At about 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday (March 10, 2015), our beloved politician Vladimir Putin passed away. Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in Saint Petersburg. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.”



Hundreds of Putin fans left messages, many were rightly skeptical, and while there is nothing strange about death hoaxes, a quick search shows they are a form of amusement for the hoaxsters themselves, what is strange is a recent DEBKAFILE report titled “Unconfirmed Russian Internet rumors that Vladimir Putin is dead ” which states that “a short announcement of Putin’s death was seen briefly on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s website early Thursday, only to be removed after 20 minutes.”



Medvedev is the sitting Prime Minister of Russia since 2012 and the former Russian President from 2008 to 2012, yet somehow, two days after the original hoax swept across the internet, his website fell for it long enough to put a death announcement up? With his connections being who he is and what he was, wouldn’t he have known on Tuesday when the hoax was created that it was false?



Was his site hacked?



Add to the weirdness, we see a Reuters article, found on a Google search, screenshot below, reported on the postponement of Putin’s scheduled visit to Kazakhstan saying “It looks like he has fallen ill,” an unnamed source in Kazakhstan’s government told the agency, yet when the Google search link is clicked, it returns an error “Page not found”, with “Our apologies, the requested page was not found. Please double-check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you’re having trouble finding a page in Reuters.”







That was the Reuters UK page, as of right now, the Canada version is still up, found here.



Vladimir Putin has postponed a visit to Kazakhstan, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, though the Kremlin dismissed another report that plans had changed because the Russian president was unwell.



Dauren Abayev, adviser and spokesman for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced the delay of the meeting between the two allies, originally scheduled for this week, without giving a reason or a new date.



Another Kazakh government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “It looks like he (Putin) has fallen ill.”



So a day after a Putin Internet death hoax goes viral, a mainstream media outlet reports Vladimir Putin’s health was in question, with some of those Reuters articles being removed from the Internet, then two days after the initial hoax, the former president and present Prime Minister of Russia, briefly puts a death announcement up on his official website, then removes it, according to Debka.



As the headline states “There is something very strange about the Vladimir Putin death hoax story.”



[UPDATE] Via DEBKA, another update:



The Kremlin Thursday dismissed rumors that President Vladimir Putin was ill after he canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. The rumors flying through the Russian Internet claimed in fact that the 62-year old Russian leader had suddenly died. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Reuters if the president, who had not been seen on live TV since March 5, was in good health, replied “yes”. “He has meetings all the time,” he said by telephone. “He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don’t know which ones we will make public.” A Kemlin website photo of a Putin meeting on March 10 with a provincial government proved to be an old picture. Still, Russian financial markets were stable and the ruble improved in value.



Why an old picture? Why doesn’t Putin just make a public appearance and put an end to the speculation?

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[baydoll]

Mar 12, 2015 21:54:10 GMT -5 Berean said:

Definitely weird. A lot of us think he's Gog, so it's interesting to speculate on what would happen if he died - who is the real Gog?



Well if he is deceased, it will be very interesting to see who replaces him, that's for sure.

[baydoll]

Putin, Said to Be ‘Perfectly Healthy,’ Is Also Nowhere to Be Seen

By NEIL MacFARQUHARMARCH 13, 2015

MOSCOW — Where’s Putin?

It was the question preoccupying Moscow and much of Russia on Friday, as speculation mounted about why President Vladimir V. Putin had not been seen in public since last week.

He canceled a trip to Kazakhstan; postponed a treaty signing with representatives from South Ossetia who were reportedly told not to bother to come to Moscow; and, unusually, was absent from a meeting of top officials from the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic intelligence service.

The last confirmed public sighting was at a meeting with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy on March 5 — although the Kremlin would have citizens think otherwise.

Given that the Kremlin borrows all manner of items from the Soviet playbook these days, there appeared to be an attempt to doctor the president’s timetable to show that all was well.


Russians created a memorial to opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov on Saturday at the site of his death in central Moscow. A number of theories have begun to circulate on how he was killed.

Fear Envelops Russia After Killing of Putin Critic Boris NemtsovFEB. 28, 2015

Putin Takes a Pay Cut, as Does Most of the KremlinMARCH 6, 2015

Aleksei A. Navalny in January. He has been under house arrest for almost a year.

Amid Economic Woes and Public Discontent, Putin Critic Sees Opening FEB. 4, 2015


The daily newspaper RBC dug into Mr. Putin’s schedule as reported on the usually reliable presidential website, Kremlin.ru. The newspaper reported that a meeting with the governor of the northwestern region of Karelia, depicted as taking place on Wednesday, actually occurred on March 4, when a local website there wrote about it. A meeting with a group of women shown as having occurred on Sunday actually happened on March 6, RBC said.

On Friday, the Kremlin released video and posted a still picture of Mr. Putin meeting with the president of Russia’s Supreme Court, but since the video was not live, questions lingered.

The simplest explanation appeared to come from an unidentified government source in Kazakhstan, who apparently did not get the memo, and told Reuters “it looks like he has fallen ill.”

Since half of Moscow seemed to be suffering from a particularly devastating strain of flu that knocks people on their backs for days at a time, that seemed the most likely explanation.

But there also appeared to be a certain reluctance to concede that Russia’s leader, who cultivates a macho image of being in good health at age 62, might have been felled like a mere mortal.

Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told any news media outlet that called (and most did) that his boss was in fine fettle, holding meetings and attending to his duties. “Perfectly healthy,” Mr. Peskov told one news agency. “Fine,” he told another.

Mr. Putin’s predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, used to disappear frequently as well. But that was either because of drinking bouts or, in at least one instance, an undisclosed heart attack. His spokesman settled on a standard explanation that Mr. Yeltsin still had a firm handshake but was busy working on documents.

Mr. Peskov referenced that wryly this week, saying on the radio station Echo of Moscow that Mr. Putin’s grip could break hands and that the president was working “exhaustively” with documents.

Given the uneasy mood in Moscow — stemming both from Russia’s involvement in the war in Ukraine and the Feb. 27 killing of the opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov just steps from the Kremlin — much darker explanations have emerged.

Andrei Illarionov, a former presidential adviser, wrote a blog post suggesting that Mr. Putin had been overthrown by hard-liners in a palace coup and that Russians could anticipate an announcement soon saying that he was taking a well-deserved rest. Conspiracy theorists bombarded Facebook, Twitter and the rest of social media along similar veins.

Early in his presidency, Mr. Putin dropped out of sight when the submarine Kursk sank in 2000 and again two years later when terrorists seized a Moscow theater and took hundreds of hostages. But since those two crises, which spawned all manner of questions about his leadership skills, he has been very much an almost daily public presence.

Now, all eyes are on Monday, when Mr. Putin is scheduled to meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan in St. Petersburg.


Correction: March 13, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of the Italian prime minister. He is Matteo Renzi, not Renzo. It also misstated the year the submarine Kursk sank. It was 2000, not 2002.

www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/russia-putin-seen-in-public.html?_r=0

[PurplePuppy]

The very scary reality behind the silly rumors of Putin’s death

Updated by Amanda Taub on March 12, 2015, 6:40 p.m. ET @amandataub




Rumors are swirling about the possible illness — or even death — of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mainstream media outlets have reported that he may be sick. Social media jokers used the hashtag #ПутинУмер ("Putin is dead") to speculate that he will be buried topless — a reference to his fondness for posing for bare-chested photos — or that he couldn't possibly die, because "it's not profitable."



Putin is almost certainly going to re-emerge in a few days looking none the worse for wear. But this isn't the first time rumors of this kind have caught on — and the fact that he can't cancel a couple of meetings without causing a frenzy of speculation hints at a deeper truth about Russia and the state of Putin's regime.



These rumors stem from fear and uncertainty about what happens after Putin. No one knows who would assume power if he died, got sick, or otherwise left office. That instability is a real danger, even if the death rumors are probably false.



Why hasn't Putin been seen since March 5?

The rumors began on Wednesday after Putin canceled a visit to Kazakhstan this week. An anonymous Kazakh government official told Reuters, "It looks like he has fallen ill." Reuters later reported that Putin had also rescheduled a meeting with officials from Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, which was set to take place on March 11 but has now been postponed to March 18.



Putin has not been seen in public since March 5. Although the Kremlin has released footage of meetings that supposedly took place on March 10 and 11, there is significant online speculation that those were actually taped the previous week. Analysts and online enthusiasts have eagerly scrutinized the footage, noting that Putin had apparently worn the same outfit to meetings on multiple days, and examined photographs to determine whether a desk calendar in the background shows the same or different dates.



Putin's spokesperson Dmitri Peskov immediately denied that the president was ill, insisting: "He has meetings all the time. He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don't know which ones we will make public."



On Friday March 13 Russian state television aired footage that they said showed Putin meeting with Vyacheslav Lebedev, the head of the Supreme Court, but that was not enough to quell the rumors. Peskov has had to specifically deny tabloid reports that Putin was absent because of the birth of a "love child" with rumored mistress (or wife) Alina Kabayeva.



"The information on a baby born to Vladimir Putin is false," Peskov said, according to state news agency ITAR-TASS. "I am going to ask people who have money to organize a contest on the best media rumor."



Rumors of Putin's demise have been greatly exaggerated

Theories, both lighthearted and serious, continue to swirl online and in different media outlets: Putin has had a stroke! Putin is recovering from plastic surgery! Putin is battling with his intelligence agency over the murder of Boris Nemtsov!



The idea that Putin would schedule plastic surgery for a week when he was supposed to have multiple public meetings seems highly implausible. And while it's possible that he's ill, it's equally likely that he's fine, and has withdrawn from public view for reasons of his own. The Brookings Institution's Hannah Thoburn told me there was just no way to know the real reason for his absence from public life. "For all we know, he probably has the flu, or just wanted to hang out with his daughters or something. You never know what it is."



"THE INFORMATION ON A BABY BORN TO VLADIMIR PUTIN IS FALSE"



Rumors that Putin is ill or injured arise with some regularity. "These sort of rumors happen all the time," Thoburn told me. "Is Putin sick? Is he this, is he that? Did he have plastic surgery?"



In 2012, Putin canceled and postponed foreign trips for more than a month. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said Putin had suffered a spinal injury during a judo bout, and there were rumors that he was seriously injured. But Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev denied that Putin had hurt his back, and eventually the president reappeared.



The truth behind the rumors: they reveal a frightening weakness in the Russian state

The rumors may not be true, but that does not mean they are irrelevant. They speak to Russians' nervousness about what would happen if Putin really were to become incapacitated. Because power is so centralized around him, there is no fallback plan for what would happen if he really were to suddenly become unable to rule. A system of government that rests on the health of a single man is very fragile, and that fragility — that weakness — is frightening.



University of Pittsburgh research fellow Sean Guillory explained via email that the rumors "say a lot" in that "they excite both the desire and fears of many people, likely at the same time." Some Russians may want Putin gone — but fear that "if he is, what comes next?"



Thoburn agreed. The rumors, she said, "get to the problem with having only one central figure" in the Russian government. She noted that if the US president or the German chancellor were to suddenly take ill or have a stroke, there would be other means of succession and other instruments of government to fill that void while a replacement was found. But in Russia right now, "you don't have that. That does expose a certain fragility in the system that scares Russians a little bit."



That's very serious. "If both the system and the integrity of the nation state are so centered on one person, whether it's a czar or whether it's Putin or some other leader," Thoburn said, "it becomes very dangerous." And if the system is so centralized but there is no system set up for succession, "the system itself is not viable in the long term."



Medvedev



Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev would take over if Putin were to die suddenly. But who would really take power? (Getty Images/Sasha Modovets)



How did Russian politics become so centered on one man?

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin and his supporters in the Kremlin have deliberately silenced political opposition. The president, Russia scholar Mark Galeotti explained to me in an interview several months ago, is "very jealous of power." That has prevented him from anointing a successor among his allies, because he is unwilling to give that kind of authority to someone else. Indeed, Galeotti said, "There’s nothing that’s more of a career killer than being discussed as a potential successor to Putin." And although opposition figures have periodically surfaced, they have for the most part been prominent individuals who'd found success in other arenas, such as oligarch-turned-activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky or chess-champion-turned-activist Garry Kasparov. They were essentially one-man operations — dissidents, rather than true political opposition.



Is succession Russia's most frightening political weakness?

Guillory explained that succession is a longstanding weakness of the Russian system. Going back to the times of the czars, and throughout the Soviet era, Russia has had "a historical problem with succession, especially when the successor isn't pre-anointed by the leader." As a result, power transfers lead to political instability, and sometimes even violence. The current rumors around Putin's whereabouts, Guillory suggested, "are tapping into this fact that is known and feared by many in Russia."



And in Russia today, there is no clear succession plan in place. Technically, of course, there is: Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev would take over if Putin were to suddenly die or become incapacitated. But the real question isn't who would assume Putin's office, but who would assume his role: who would really take power after he is gone. That question remains unanswered.



That is a significant source of potential instability for Russia, and it deserves to be taken seriously, even if the rumors themselves do not. It is easy to mistake Putin's personal control over the levers of power in Russia for a sign of strength — after all, it makes him look like an especially powerful leader. But for Russia, it is a weakness. And that means that for the rest of the world, and for Russians, it is a potential source of instability and danger.



Après Putin, le déluge?



FILED UNDER: Russia
 

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[Shoshanna]

[Berean]

Kremlin Tells Journalists To Not Leave Moscow For The Weekend And To Expect A Major Announcement

Stay tuned - this could get interesting!


L. TODD WOOD — MARCH 13, 2015


I travel to Moscow and the territories of the former Soviet Union frequently to report for several major news outlets. From my viewpoint, there is definitely something going on in the Kremlin regarding Putin. It is very difficult to figure out what this is.



It could be he is out of the city to be with his mistress as they have their baby. It could be he has a health problem.



It could be that he has died. It could be a change in power or an attempt at such.



I have no reason to say the following translation is fake, nor can I confirm it.



What I can say is that the Russians are following the Soviet script regarding drama at the Kremlin–meaning you need the CIA to try and figure out what is going on.



Stay tuned – this could get interesting!







Translation:



The Kremlin is preparing a major announcement; journalists are asked not to depart for the weekend.



A source in the press service of the President of Russia says he is preparing a major announcement in the near future; and for this reason, heads of relevant media are asked to be ready in the next few days for a possible press conference.



This was indirectly confirmed by the CEO of the Center for Political Information polit-info, Alexei Mukhin.



Mukhin also denied reports that President Putin is currently incapacitated.





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[schwartzie]

Interesting...he claims to be a Christian, but has no problem with having sex outside of marriage....


Missing Putin found in Switzerland for ‘birth of love child’



By Geoff Earle



March 13, 2015 | 5:30pm

Missing Putin found in Switzerland for ‘birth of love child’


WASHINGTON — From Russia, with love child. Vladimir Putin hasn’t been seen in public for more than a week — and rampant speculation over the Russian president’s whereabouts took a wild turn on Friday with reports he was in Switzerland for the birth of his secret daughter.



“Es ist ein Madchen!” or “It’s a Girl!” screamed a headline from the Swiss newspaper Blick, which had him in Lugano to witness the arrival of his child with Alina Kabaeva, 31, a retired Olympic gymnast who served in the Russian parliament and now works for a media company.



The paper reported that Putin’s daughter was born at the posh Santa Anna di Sorgeno clinic on the Italian border.



Putin reserved two rooms at the clinic — one for Kabaeva, and one for body guards, Swiss radio channel RSI said, according to the Daily Beast.



Putin himself was staying with friends in the area, the Swiss website Ticino news reported.



Desperate to squash the rumors, the Kremlin released a photo and video Friday of the 62-year old Russian strongman meeting with the head of the Russian Supreme Court.



But there was no way to verify when they were taken, and plenty of reason for suspicion.



On Wednesday, the government issued a picture of a meeting between Putin and the regional governor of Karelia, but the Russian newspaper RBC said the meeting actually took place March 4.



There has been no verified Putin sightings since March 5, when he appeared at a press conference in Moscow with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.



Two canceled meetings since then have Kremlin watchers furiously trying to figure out where Putin is and what he’s doing.



Putin has two adult children with his ex-wife, Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and has insisted he has no relationship with the gymnast.



Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov denied the love child stories.



“The information on a baby born to Vladimir Putin is false,” Peskov said. “I am going to ask people who have money to organize a contest on the best media rumor.”



Other speculation about what’s behind Putin’s vanishing act range from health problems to a power struggle in the Kremlin. Peskov’s poetic denials – and the Kremlin’s reputation for obfuscation — did little to tamp down the persistent questions.



At one point, he claimed there was “no need to worry” about Putin’s health because. “His handshake is so strong he breaks hands with it.”

Filed under Russia , Switzerland , Vladimir Putin
 
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[baydoll]

Putin himself was staying with friends in the area, the Swiss website Ticino news reported.



Desperate to squash the rumors, the Kremlin released a photo and video Friday of the 62-year old Russian strongman meeting with the head of the Russian Supreme Court.

Why the secrecy then? Surely they knew his disappearance would cause rumors of his well-being and his whereabouts. They should have nipped it in the bud as soon as the rumors started but noooo. I swear I think they do these things purposely to distract the masses from the more devious going ons... oh wait...

I don't trust the whole lot of them not one little teeny tiny bit.

[baydoll]

Read on another forum (whose name is unlawful to mention, ha ha!) that posited Putin is alive and well and more than likely 'up to no good and talking to someone he does not want the rest of the world knowing who he is meeting up with.'

And viola! the 'wag the dog' situation is in place. Yeah for real he's in Switzerland with his mistress for the birth of their love child.

[Dagvelia]

Mar 14, 2015 5:31:59 GMT -5 baydoll said:

Putin himself was staying with friends in the area, the Swiss website Ticino news reported.



Desperate to squash the rumors, the Kremlin released a photo and video Friday of the 62-year old Russian strongman meeting with the head of the Russian Supreme Court.

Why the secrecy then? Surely they knew his disappearance would cause rumors of his well-being and his whereabouts. They should have nipped it in the bud as soon as the rumors started but noooo. I swear I think they do these things purposely to distract the masses from the more devious going ons... oh wait...

I don't trust the whole lot of them not one little teeny tiny bit.

He didn't want to look like Obama taking a vacation. Except Obama is always on vacation.

[schwartzie]

What's odd is I've seen nothing about this in the MSM.  The only story that even comes close is the one about Putin telling the press not to leave town.  I wonder what all that's about? 

[J.J.Gibbs]

5 Most Ridiculous Theories About the Whereabouts of Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Alexei Druzhinin

POLITICS


It's been nine days since Putin made a public appearance, and media speculation about his location and state has (possibly) reached its peak. We look at the five most ridiculous media theories.

In the past week, Russian President Vladimir Putin's lack of public appearances has led to a flurry of theories in the media about his whereabouts. While the President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has had a tough week of battling bizarre questions about his whereabouts. We decided to rank the top five.



5. He's Dead





Somehow, such an audacious idea is not even at the top of the list of most ridiculous theories. Simply reading the news about President Putin's acts and statements can show that he is indeed working, having proposed the creation of a new federal agency on nationalities, planned a meeting with the President of Kyrgyzstan, signed two laws, four executive orders and had a phone conversation with Armenia's President. Prime Minister Medvedev doing his best Putin impression notwithstanding, an international conspiracy to conceal Putin's death would be a little over-the-top.



4. He Has Cancer, No, He Hurt His Back, No, No, I Know, He Had a Stroke (The Flu Maybe?)




Could Putin have gotten hurt doing judo?


Rumors about President Putin's health seem to be reaching the level of those once "enjoyed" by Fidel Castro. After the 638 or so CIA plots to physically eliminate the Cuban leader failed, the only way left was to speculate on the rumors of his health in the media.



A Washington Post article on Saturday announced that Putin's illness would no doubt be hidden because "manly men don’t get sick." Of course, Putin's image as a "manly man," as the Post has it, is one that only appears in the Western media. In Russia, Putin has used his image as a policy tool, but it has been to promote slightly different values, such as exercise and abstaining from smoking and drinking for Russia's men.



3. He is Witnessing the Birth of His Love Child



Has Putin fathered a child?


Apparently, Putin is in Switzerland, witnessing the birth of his child. It's not clear why Putin would need to travel to Switzerland to witness the birth of his child. Considering the security precautions that his office would need to take to ensure Putin's secret journey to Switzerland stays unknown, it would probably be cheaper to simply buy a Swiss clinic and transport all of its workers and equipment to Russia.



It's also not clear why, if Putin allegedly disappeared on March 5, he would take such a long time to be gone to simply witness the birth of his alleged child.



Of course, the fact that no Russian Presidency planes have gone to Switzerland in the past week, and that the woman who media outlets allege to be Putin's girlfriend, gymnast and Russian State Duma Deputy Alina Kabaeva, has not given birth seem to be of no concern to the many people circulating yet another unfounded rumour.



2. He Was Overthrown in a Coup



Is Medvedev aiming for the top seat?



This is one of the less popular theories, although it does show that theories of Putin's "absence" do say more about the people who are spouting the theories than what Putin is really doing. According to Forbes, either Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov or President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov could actually be in power right now.



How exactly this would happen is unclear, as he has made television appearances on March 5th, 8th, 11th, 12th and 13th. However, this is still not enough for some media outlets.



1. He's Binge Watching House of Cards



Petrov's got it. Yeah, that's right.



A Washington Post cartoonist suggested this one, and, well, there isn't much to really contradict it. Although press secretary Peskov has not commented if Putin roots for Kevin Spacey's character or Viktor Petrov, the fictionalized Russian President in the series, one thing is clear, Netflix' policy of release of all 13 episodes in one day is not good for anyone's productivity.



This may also be one of those times when the most ridiculous solution is probably the least impossible. The other option would be that he pre-recorded a bunch of meetings for TV, turned off his answering machine and went fishing, but that would mean being out of the office for things like talking to the Armenian President or signing several laws.



Overall, if there is one thing this media furor over Putin's absence from the public has shown, it's that Putin has achieved a celebrity status surpassing that of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian put together. It's up for debate if US President Barack Obama would receive the same amount of media coverage if he decided to stay at Camp David for a week and not make any public appearances, but #PutinChallenge, anyone?







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[PrisonerOfHope]

Here are some thoughts from one of the nutty end-times sites:

1. I think he is too powerful and is laying low, and that there would be more info out about whatever is going on and especially if it was a coop?! But it definitely is baffling and maybe that is their goal, to throw people off guard to allow time to pass for whatever reason.  (Coop?  Like a chicken coop?)  

2. After all of this build-up, I think I shall be somewhat disappointed if this doesn’t turn out to be something pretty big. 

3. What if he was assassinated? The list for 2nd in charge is long and distinguished. It may hierarchy fight! Or even a Military Coup!

4. I will tell you what Baffles me more then a missing Putin ! It’s a missing JD Farag . He is going to be gone for 3 weeks and with no explanation . :cry: I have watched him every Sunday for years 

5. My bet is he is the czar of the new Russian Empire. The flag is down because there will be a new one. And that he just bought Google. Or as it will be known henceforth, Gog-el.

6. Or, maybe he’s recovering from a fatal head wound.
 (Yes, I know what I said.)

[Shoshanna]

Vladimir Putin reappears on television as rumours ranging from him being under threat of a coup to the birth of his love child rock the Kremlin
Mar 16, 2015



Vladimir Putin held his first public meeting in more than a week today
The Russian president met with the head of the supreme court in Moscow
The pair are believed to have discussed judicial reform and the economy
Russian government sources say Putin has further meetings on Monday
Reports claim Putin’s ‘girlfriend’ has checked into Swiss maternity hospital
It’s claimed Alina Kabayeva, 31, is giving birth or had recently done so
Her stay at the hospital has been linked to recent disappearance of Putin
It comes as the Kremlin fends off allegations of an impending coup
Former aide said Russia’s prime minister will be replaced by Sergei Ivanov
This to be followed by an announcement Putin needs a break, it is claimed

Vladimir Putin has appeared on television for the first time in a week amid health fears and suggestions that he is being subject to a coup, while rumours persist that his 31-year-old ‘girlfriend’ is about to give birth.

Putin, 62, had cancelled several planned meetings during the week leading to speculation over his health and even claims that he was fighting to retain his position.

Channel NTV showed footage of Putin meeting with supreme court president Vyacheslav Lebedev, which it claims was shot on Friday.

According to Putin’s staff, he was discussing judicial reform and the likely increase in the number of bankruptcies as as result of Russia’s economic collapse.

Putin is due to meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan in St Petersburg on Monday according to the Kremlin.

The Russian president was last seen in public on March 5.

For the past week, the Russian government has been reluctantly answering questions about Putin’s health and suggestions that his unofficial girlfriend Alina Kabayeva had checked into a Swiss maternity clinic.

Rumours about 31-year-old Alina Kabayeva surfaced with reports in Switzerland, Italy and Russia suggesting the gymnast had either given birth or was about to do so.

It comes amid increased speculation over what has happened to Putin with the Russian leader not having been seen for a week.

The claims focused on an elite clinic in Lugano, in the Italian region of the neutral country, with some accounts saying she had a new daughter.

Putin’s spokesman – who has never confirmed a relationship between the 62 year old strongman and the Olympic gold-medal winner – insisted: ‘Information about the birth of Vladimir Putin’s child does not correspond to reality.’

The Russian embassy in Kiev refused to comment on a report on the speculation in newspaper Blick.

Russian Tatler yesterday repeated gossip that Kabayeva has two children already by Putin but adds there is no official confirmation.

Kabayeva has been largely out of sight since quitting as an MP in Putin’s United Russia party last September, when she took over as head of a major media conglomerate.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin today issued a new picture showing Putin meeting the chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev at his out-of-Moscow residence Novo-Ogaryovo.

The image was meant to scotch suggestions that Putin was not at work amid speculation over a coup or illness.

However, there were immediate claims the picture and TV footage was old, and that it was further evidence of his mystery absence.

Current rumours in Moscow include Putin suffering a stroke, or an unfolding palace coup, following his sudden cancellation of a scheduled trip to Kazakhstan.

With Moscow in febrile mood, a former senior aide to the strongman claimed another ex-KGB spy is being urgently lined up to take over from him.

The theory suggests the Kremlin’s chief of staff Sergei Ivanov – a former defence minister – will become prime minister in place of the lacklustre Dmitry Medvedev.

After this switch, dubbed a ‘conspiracy of generals’, Putin – currently the subject of swirling rumours over his health after not being seen in public for more than a week – would be swiftly ousted.

Under the Russian constitution, in the event of a president leaving office, the prime minister replaces him in an acting role pending elections.

This latest forecast of an imminent sea change in Russian politics came from Andrei Illarionov, Putin’s former chief economics aide, who last year predicted Putin’s land grab against Ukraine three weeks before it happened.

While the Kremlin insists Putin is healthy and in full control of his government, Illarionov claimed: ‘In the next few days we should expect the resignation of prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Sergei Ivanov being appointed in his place.’

After this, ‘the public is likely to be informed that the national leader (Putin) needs a well deserved rest’.

Observers note that in recent days, Ivanov – who retained the military rank of colonel general and whose eldest son was killed in a mysterious drowning accident in Dubai last November – has been little seen in public.

And Medvedev, who served as president for four years to 2012, is also out of the limelight.

Some Kremlin-watchers say that Western sanctions have created huge tensions inside Putin’s fractious entourage in recent weeks, with cash streams closed off.

The murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov – branded a ‘provocation’ by Putin – has only intensified the infighting with blame for his slaying blamed on the president’s close allies in Chechnya.

Illarionov, a senior follow at the Cato Institute in Washington, earlier alleged a cover-up by the Russian authorities over Nemtsov’s shooting yards from the Kremlin.

Putin is said by his spokesman Dmitry Peskov to be ‘exhaustively’ working on documents but has – most unusually – not been seen publicly since 5 March, more than a week.

The Kremlin insists he is healthy, but this has done nothing to end speculation from Russians who for years were lied to over the health of geriatric Soviet leaders, and also Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin.


Full story, pictures, video here.

[PurplePuppy]

Russian State TV Retracts Putin Whereabouts, Confusion Deepens

Posted by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News, World 4 hours ago 


[Russian State TV Retracts Putin Whereabouts, Confusion Deepens]




The rumours and confusion surrounding Putin’s mysterious disappearance were heightened on Saturday when Russian state television retracted reports that Putin had hosted an official visit from the president of Kyrgyzstan.



The Telegraph reports:



Mr Putin has remained hidden from public view for nine days. Levels of fear and uncertainty in Moscow have been rising as rumours fly over what could be behind Putin’s lengthy disappearance.



The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that there is anything amiss with the Russian leader, batting away suggestions that he is ill, dead, victim of a palace coup or in Switzerland to be by his girlfriend’s side as she gives birth.



Mr Putin’s next public appearance is scheduled for Monday, when he is due to meet Almazbek Atambayev, the President of Kyrgyzstan, in Saint Petersburg.



But that encounter was thrown into confusion on Friday night as announcers on state television, apparently reading from an incorrect script, described the meeting in the past tense.



Rossiya 24, the channel involved, later described the incident as a “mistake”, but the blunder deepened suspicions that state media is covering up for Mr Putin’s unexplained absence.



On Friday, ostensibly new footage of Mr Putin meeting a senior Russian judge at his residence was shown on state television but failed to quell the speculation. Such clips are often recorded in advance, and released when the authorities give the go-ahead.



Meanwhile, Swiss media reported that Alina Kabaeva, a gymnast turned parliamentarian who is allegedly Mr Putin’s girlfriend, had flown to Lugano, Switzerland to give birth to a baby girl at the private clinic of Santa’Anna di Sorengo.



But the Swiss reports diverged on when the former gymnast had given birth.



Gymnast turned politician Alina Kabaeva is reputedly in a relationship with Mr. Putin



A tabloid, Bilk, claimed that Mr Putin was present when his 32-year-old alleged lover gave birth to the baby, purportedly explaining his public absence. Other local reports said that the Russian leader had reserved two rooms at the clinic, one for his girlfriend and the other for her bodyguards, and had himself stayed with friends nearby.



But Corriere del Ticino, an Italian-language Swiss newspaper, claimed that Miss Kabayeva had the baby two weeks ago and that the event did not explain Mr Putin’s absence from official events in the last week.



“Putin never set foot in Ticino while his girlfriend was staying at the clinic,” it said.



Reports claimed Mr Putin had chosen the clinic in Lugano after it was recommended to him by his friend Silvio Berlusconi.



One of the former Italian premier’s daughters, Barbara Berlusconi, gave birth there in 2009. It was also reported that Mr Putin was friends with a Russian gynaecologist who works at the private clinic.



Mr Putin’s spokesman told the Russian edition of Forbes magazine that “information about the birth of a baby fathered by Vladimir Putin does not correspond with reality.”



Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi developed a close rapport when the Italian billionaire businessman was in power, visiting each other in Moscow and Rome.



Mr Putin has not been seen in public since he met Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, on March 5.
 

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[J.J.Gibbs]

Curiouser and curiouser.....


Putin’s Chief Bodyguard Killed
Posted by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News, World 4 hours ago

[Putin’s Chief Bodyguard Killed]


Sources in Moscow are reporting on the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal chief bodyguard, General Viktor Zolotov. Ukraine journalist Alex Mochanov has also confirmed the rumours.

Uapress.info reports:



According to some information Russian President Vladimir Putin was going to appoint General Viktor Zolotov as head of the FSB. However, this did not happen because the Russian President was absent.

Between 2000-2013 Colonel-General Viktor Zolotov worked as head of the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation. And in 2014 became the first Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs – Chief of the troops of the Russian Interior Ministry.

We will update you on this story as we get more information.

 
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[baydoll]

Why is ABC News lying about Putin's reappearance? They deliberately used an older clip (from last year, see video below) for today's meeting:



And they wonder why no one believes a word they say anymore.