Vladimir Putin is consolidating support in Russia after last week’s short-lived uprising by Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a rare meet-and-greet that saw him mobbed by a mob as he posed for selfies with young girls.
Stunning footage from the event — a presidential appearance during a trip to the town of Derbent in southern Russia’s Dagestan region — showed him ducking into a nighttime crowd like a Hollywood actor on a red carpet show.
Seemingly imbued with new energy after averting a small-scale civil war last week, the normally stoic and isolated Putin was unusually handsome, shaking hands and planting kisses on the head of a young teenage girl who gushed over him and begged her mother for a photo of her with the president.
In another bizarre moment, he shakes hands with – and appears to adjust something like the uniform of – an officer carrying his nuclear briefcase.
He has never greeted his security guards in such a way before.
The scene was a marked departure from the extreme measures of recent years that have enforced strict quarantines for everyone outside of Putin’s immediate circle before meeting him.
His transformative behavior has led many, including senior Russian figures, to fuel speculation that Putin greeting adoring fans in Dagestan was in fact a double.
Vladimir Putin took part in a rare meet-and-greet where he was mobbed by a mob as he posed for selfies with young girls
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes a selfie with an adoring Dagestan teenager
The normally stoic and isolated Putin was unusually handsome, shaking hands and planting kisses on the head of a young teenage girl
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets people on a street in Derbent in the southern region of Dagestan, Russia, June 28, 2023
Putin has not been greeted in such a way since before the pandemic
In another bizarre moment, he shook hands with – and seemed to adjust something to the uniform – an officer who may have been carrying his nuclear briefcase.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Naryn-Kala fortress in Derbent in the Russian Republic of Dagestan on June 28, 2023
It comes as a recent photo of Putin with the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, showed the president with puffy skin and mottled skin.
A former Moscow diplomat said today: “It is becoming impossible to believe that there is only one Putin.
“There are several — very good lookalikes, but they behave slightly differently.
“This one who dives into the crowd in Dagestan behaves differently from the traditional Putin.”
Commentator Viktor Alksnis, a Soviet military tactician and politician who is now a Western analyst known as the Black Colonel, said: “Why is Putin meeting visitors in the Kremlin after their two-week quarantine and at a great distance, while she is in Derbent calm in the crowd and even hug and kiss some citizens?
How can the physical safety of the president be ensured under such circumstances?
‘Something isn’t right here. It’s like a theatrical production in which Putin isn’t really Putin.’
And pre-war Russian nationalist and former FSB colonel Igor “Strelkov” Girkin stated with certainty that it was a Putin lookalike in Dagestan, some 2,000 kilometers south of Moscow.
“A person who vaguely resembles the president — and who does not at all require adherence to the two-week quarantine required to get an appointment with [Putin] – walked around Derbent,’ he said.
Another explanation could be that Putin flew to the remote region in the Caucasus to visit a city where a presidential tour is an important occasion and the public would be very excited.
His former speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov said, “Putin needs a photo surrounded by people so much right now that he even forgot about Covid, quarantine and social distancing for this….
“Apparently it was impossible to give an enthusiastic reception in Moscow or any other Russian region, so he had to go [Dagestan].
‘Here….it’s easier to organize an enthusiastic crowd.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) watches a show during a working trip to Dagestan, in Derbent, Russian Republic of Dagestan, June 28, 2023 (issued June 29, 2023). The growth of domestic tourism in Russia is partly driven by sanctions from a number of states, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin in particular drew attention to the tourism potential of the North Caucasus
Fans clamor to meet and greet Vladimir Putin as he tours the town of Derbent in Dagestan
Putin hands out members of his security team to greet adoring fans
A recent photo of Putin with the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, showed Putin with puffy skin and mottled skin
Russian President Vladimir Putin is photographed during his working trip to the Russian Republic of Dagestan on June 28, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin (CR) visits Naryn-Kala fortress during a working trip to Dagestan, in Derbent, Russian Republic of Dagestan, June 28, 2023
Independent news outlet Agentstvo said it was the first time since before the pandemic that Putin had been seen in such a crowd.
“For the first time since March 2020, the president did not keep his distance and even kissed the child,” the outlet’s Telegram channel said.
“At the same time, two weeks ago, all guests who met him continued to strictly observe the quarantine.”
Kirill Martynov, editor of the independent Novaya Gazeta Europe, said: ‘This is all very strange.
“The meeting place is strange, like Putin hugging people all of a sudden. Normally he doesn’t. Where is the [long] table? It’s a riddle.
“I really don’t like stupid conspiracy theories, but the feeling that there are two Putins is growing.
“It could be the same person, but different behavioral models. One is quarantined, the other can be cuddled in Derbent.’
Malyuta Skuratov Telegram channel reported: “It is much easier to believe that this is a doppelgänger than that Putin dared to approach a crowd of people who apparently were not quarantined.”
Yet it was also possible that the entire rent-a-crowd had been quarantined prior to his visit.
Telegram channel General SVR – who claims that almost all of Putin’s recent appearances have been due to body doubling as he suffered from cancer and other health problems – said: “The doppelgänger hugged and kissed absolutely unknown old women and young ladies, apparently including minors.” , and the number of handshakes of the president’s doppelgänger with strangers exceeded all reasonable limits…
“Overall, the show was a success,” Putin” in Derbent was greeted more emotionally than Kim Jong-un.’
The channel claims that actors have undergone plastic surgery to resemble Putin and are deployed when they have to meet crowds of people or when the president is incapacitated.