RUMOURS are swirling in Moscow over the health of Vladimir Putin after the Russian president disappeared from view and put off a foreign visit.

Mr Putin has not been seen in public for a week and an official in Kazakhstan told reporters that he postponed a separate visit to the central Asian country yesterday because he was ill. He will also not appear at an annual meeting of high-ranking officers from the Federal Security Service yesterday, which he has attended in past years.

Reporters last saw the president when he met Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, on March 5. Photographs of Mr Putin meeting officials one-on-one have been put on the Kremlin website since then, but his gathering with a group of women for International Women's Day on March 8 actually took place three days earlier, according to one participant.

Dmitry Peskov, the president's spokesman, moved to scotch speculation about his boss's health yesterday, referring to another rumour that Igor Sechin, the head of the state-owned Rosneft oil company, was about to be sacked.

"As soon as the sun comes and it starts to smell of spring, these things flare up," he said. "Someone imagines Sechin's resigning, someone the government, and someone doesn't see the president on the television for a few days."

Mr Peskov said that Mr Putin was "absolutely" healthy and that he was conducting meetings "constantly, but they are not all public". Asked if the president's handshake was strong, he told the Ekho Moskvy radio station: "He's breaking hands. There's no need to worry. Everything is fine."

It is not the first time that questions have been asked about Mr Putin's health.

In late 2012, he was seen limping and then cancelled or postponed a series of foreign trips leading to speculation that he was unable to withstand long flights. Some Russian media suggested he had aggravated an old back injury when he flew a motorised hang glider to guide a group of Siberian Cranes hatched in captivity toward their southern wintering grounds.

But Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's prime minister, said the president, had suffered a minor sports injury. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

Irish Independent