“After his re-election, Vladimir Putin returned to the lifestyle he led before the campaign. He rarely leaves the Kremlin and his residences anymore,” writes the independent Russian portal Agency. Putin has identical offices in the Kremlin and in the presidential residence Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow, from which his office often publishes pictures of meetings or online conferences – and it is not known where he is.
The Agency’s editors looked at all of his official program – and the disparity is clear. They took into account the period from the beginning of the presidential election campaign on December 8 to April 20. In total, the Kremlin reported on 100 outing events with the participation of the president.
In the last pre-election month, from February 17 to March 17, 31 events took place outside the Kremlin and presidential residences; Putin managed to visit Chelyabinsk region, Tatarstan (where he flew through in a bomber), Stavropol and Krasnodar regions and deliver his speech in the Federal Assembly. In other words, he managed it in three weeks, in the last week before the elections (March 11-17), Putin did not travel outside the Kremlin and Novo-Ogaryovo.
“After the elections, the number of trips decreased significantly. In the month from March 17 to April 17, only 10 events outside the Kremlin and residences were recorded, including one concert to celebrate the annexation of Crimea, which took place the day after the elections,” Agenstvso continues. Only once during the month did the president leave the Moscow region: on March 27 he traveled to Torzhok in the Tver region, 250 km from Moscow by road.
Putin’s non-participation in the situation of ugly floods is striking. A dam burst in Orsk on April 5, and according to official records, the president has only attended two online meetings about aid since that day, called governors and received members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and some other potentates in the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov directly said that a trip to flood-affected places is not on the agenda.
For context, the Agency also looked at Putin’s travels in 2023. He was only seen in public on 147 days; for the rest of the time he did not travel outside his residences and did not invite journalists or anyone but close officials and loyal politicians to his meetings.
