Russian President Vladimir Putin has not appeared at public events for 8 days before meeting Donald Trump's special representative in Saint Petersburg.
Medianews.az reports, citing musavat.com, that the komp1 website wrote about this. "Based on the analysis of news published on the Kremlin's website, this is the second time since the beginning of 2025 that the president has been absent from public view for a long period. In the previous three years, there were no such frequent and long breaks in Putin's work schedule during the first three months. Putin last met with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik," various sources stated.
According to the report, since April 1, the Kremlin has only released footage of meetings that appear to have been pre-recorded. From April 1 to 9, the Kremlin's official website published reports about Putin’s meetings with Buryatia’s head Alexey Tsydenov, the CEO of the Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina, Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, Aeroflot’s head Sergey Alexandrovsky, and Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov. It is said that these meetings were recorded in advance.
It is noted that the last time the president was unseen for such a long period was during the New Year holidays (from December 29 to January 8 inclusively). Overall, since the beginning of the year, the president has spent 42 days attending mass events.
In 2024, Putin has not been at mass events for more than five consecutive days at the start of the year; in early 2023, the longest period without mass events was from March 23 to 29, and in 2022, Putin was absent from the public for a long period only during the New Year holidays.
The “INSIDER-T” Telegram channel claims that during the days Putin was unseen, he was in Sochi preparing for international contacts. Other sources have claimed that Putin withdrew into secrecy to avoid commenting on US President Donald Trump’s trade-related decision. "Putin has a negative attitude towards instability in the global markets, but for now, he has deliberately refrained from strongly reacting to the decision," one source noted.
Recall that on April 11, Putin held a closed-door meeting lasting over 4 hours with Trump’s close special representative Steve Witkoff. The parties discussed resolving the conflict in Ukraine and possible meetings between the leaders of Russia and the United States.
