Any thoughts on the missing persons report on a you know who biggie?

[Mr Quatro]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/putins...143055733.html

Putin has not been out of the Kremlin spotlight for more than a day since the early 2000s, when he dropped off the grid after a national tragedy (the sinking of the submarine Kursk sank in 2000) and in 2002 when terrorists took over a Moscow theater and more than 100 civilians died.
So his lengthy absence is unprecedented in that it has no obvious cause. Putin is, however, dealing with serious matters.

[Torplexed]

The next big no-show will be if he doesn't appear for the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea this March 17 . If he fails to make an appearance it will just add to the the rumours of a forced "vacation."

I'm trying to imagine another nation on this planet of Russia's stature where a leader goes on an unexplained extended absence with denials and no credible explanation. If he's down with the flu, prop him up in bed and snap a picture. Can't be any worse than all those Vlad-manboob photos we've had to Putin up with.

[Rockstar]

I heard he had bad case of rotton crotch and the flu. So in order to maintain his godlike he-man lion hunter status he had to duck out of the spotlight. Otherwise the common folk might start thinking he's just a mere mortal.

[CCIP]

On the other hand, there have been suggestions that this is a well-orchestrated PR move meant to build up hysteria in the media and distract from actual issues.

[Oberon]

I hope that he hasn't been given 'ill-health', there are much worse alternatives to Putin floating around in the Russian political system. 'Better the devil you know' is the phrase that comes to mind.

[Mr Quatro]

One crazy rumor is that his girlfriend had a baby and he wanted to be there for the birth.

Too many smoke screens with the Russian news playing along with showing old pictures and saying he was doing things that he wasn't.

If he doesn't show up by St Patrick's day I say we send out a search party for him.

[mapuc]

I read a funny remarks earlier today

Putin are fighting Chuck Norris. The fight is for who shall be the ruler of the Universe.

Markus

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by CCIP

On the other hand, there have been suggestions that this is a well-orchestrated PR move meant to build up hysteria in the media and distract from actual issues.

I think L'il Un did the same thing a few months ago.

[AngusJS]

Maybe he's come down with a case of polonium poisoning? Or maybe they shot down another airliner and it crashed on his head? Or maybe he's been arrested for ordering the murder of Nemtsov? We can hope.

In other news, in the completely accurate documentary shown on Russian state TV about how Crimea was s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ returned to the Glorious Motherland, Putin said that he considered using nuclear weapons when he i̶n̶v̶a̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶U̶k̶r̶a̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶n̶e̶x̶e̶d̶ liberated Crimea.

[mapuc]

Serious I think the Swedish expert on Russia, are right it has been some kind of coup, Putin's nearest friends suffered a lot due to these sanctions.


Markus

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Serious I think the Swedish expert on Russia, are right it has been some kind of coup, Putin's nearest friends suffered a lot due to these sanctions.


Markus

It's plausible but unlikely. I have heard some rumblings from Russian nationalists recently that Putin is not hardline enough - that he is attempting to couch a relatively aggressive policy in language that is just too rationalist and uninspired, paying lip service to liberals and internationalists. And then Kadyrov dropped a cryptic declaration that "he respects Putin as a person and will respect him regardless of what position he occupies". Some think that Kadyrov, being a Kremlin insider (and someone prone to gaffes) may have accidentally revealed that Putin has been tipped for removal from presidency. Though that seems farfetched.

It wouldn't be unprecedented though - back in 2011, everybody was caught by surprise by the reshuffle in "United Russia's" leadership. Russia's economic success up until then had been arguably up to an influential faction I like to call technocrats - business-savvy, educated, wealthy people of the lawyer/economist/policy analyst types loyal to Putin's regime and willing to play the system while also improving it. Socially and politically, the technocrats were relatively moderate and even somewhat progressive. Medvedev is the classic example of a Russian pro-Putin technocrat. Well, in fall 2011 something happened, and I don't know if we'll ever know exactly what, but there was a massive (but entirely unpublicised) reshuffle which had effectively ejected the technocrats or forced them in line with the "siloviki". It took several weeks for it to become apparent. In 2012, of course, he was re-elected.

By 2013, however, Putin himself seemed to be distancing himself from the United Russia party, for reasons that are also not entirely clear right now. There had been some suggestions that he was about to break off that alliance and start his own party, bringing back the same voter base and coalition, but under a renegotiated banner. However, that never happened.

Then we had 2014 and we all know what happened there - although one thing to add to that is the sudden (and again, largely unpublicized and unknown in the West) decimation of non-state-controlled media which over the course of March saw independent journalism in Russia on the verge of extinction. There's still no clarity whose initiative this was on, whether Putin approved of it or somebody else instigated it - and some of the pressure seemed to relax later on as the year went on.

With the turmoil going on recently, I'm certainly willing to see this a symptom of some sort of shady dealings going on behind the scenes of Russia's governing coalition once again. But I don't see any obvious evidence of it yet. And my instinct is that getting rid of Putin right now would be too much. I don't know if most Russians are ready to swallow that yet.

But as Oberon said, ironically, right now I'd honestly suggest crossing fingers and hoping Putin is alright, because there are worse devils behind him and compared to some of the current "patriotic ideologues" he indeed comes off as a relative moderate.

I'd equally not be surprised if Kadyrov is somehow involved in all of this. Even assuming nothing is actually happening, all of this may just be another in a series of attempts to create hysteria and divert attention from Kadyrov, whose role in the Nemtsov assassination is becoming harder and harder to conceal. Even some government-controlled media had actually openly discussed a possible Kadyrov connection recently. This might be a way to drown that out in a sea of media noise.

[em2nought]

My thoughts are "Why aren't we so lucky?".

[Oberon]

He's alledgedly appeared at the meeting with Kyrgyz leader Almazbek Atambayev (honestly, Kyrgyzstan always makes me think someone just smashed their head against a keyboard when naming it), so there's that. No word whether it's really Putin or a robotic counterpart...presumably because there's no real way that anyone would be able to tell the difference...

Meanwhile, the Russian Navy has begun large scale Arctic exercises and is on a state of 'full combat readiness'. So no doubt some ethnic Russian polar bears will suddenly be discovered somewhere near the North Pole shortly...

[james_nix]

I vote plastic surgery to look more like his new younger wife.

[Von Tonner]

With apologies to Charles Durning and his "Sidestep" in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.