A day after the Kremlin assured Russians that Vladimir Putin was healthy despite multiple hospital examinations, the dictator was seen repeatedly scratching his itchy face on a trip outside Moscow.
Unusually, he had earlier plunged into a waiting crowd in Ufa city in an evident bid to demonstrate his robust health.
His nervy FSO [Federal Protective Service] bodyguards held him apart from Russians seeking to get close to the 72-year-old ruler.
The fleeting nighttime ‘meet the people’ moment came after the Kremlin had insisted there was nothing untoward with Putin’s health after the dictator disclosed he was having “all sorts of regular examinations” in a top Moscow hospital.
Russian state media later announced that he had “no health problems”, and his spokesman said the hospital sessions were “routine”.
Footage of Putin as he met sports officials in Ufa showed him rubbing and scratching his face and the back of his neck.
Putin – who is believed to have undergone repeated botox treatments to mask his ageing – had been seen dealing with similar itches a day earlier in Moscow.
The reason for the mystery itches was not clear.
Significant security measures suggesting paranoia over his safety were implemented before the Kremlin leader’s visit.
Children in the city were ordered not to go to school for two days and to undergo pandemic-style online classes from home.
Some schools gave the reason as the risk of viral infections in the city. Yet others said it was because Putin was present for the ‘Russia – a Sports Power’ forum, during which he was seen meeting Paralympians, complaining they were banned from international contests because the sport had been “politicised” by the West.
If there was a risk of viral infections spreading, it seems odd that Putin plunged into a seemingly random crowd in Ufa, the capital of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.
“From the teachers, thank you,” blurted one female admirer as Putin went on his rare walkabout.
The Kremlin leader complained that children from poor families were being excluded from sports in Russia because parents were expected to pay – unlike in the Soviet era.
He demanded a return to the USSR system of free access to op training for all talented children.
« I’ll tell you honestly, if I had to pay for everything when I was actively involved in sports, I would never have become a USSR Master of Sports in Sambo [a Russian martial art] and would never have achieved the standard of a Master of Sports of the Soviet Union in Judo.
“My family didn’t have an extra penny to pay for everything. But we need to sort this out properly. There should be no fees at all for low-income and large families.”
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