The Dictator In His Labyrinth
MOSCOW — Where’s Putin? The question obsessed Moscow and much of Russia on Friday, as speculation mounted as to why President Vladimir V. Putin had not been seen in public for more than a week.
He abruptly canceled a trip to Kazakhstan and postponed a treaty signing with representatives from South Ossetia who were reportedly told not to bother to fly to Moscow.
Most unusually, he was absent from an annual meeting of the top officials from the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic intelligence service.
The rumor mill went into overdrive, churning out possible explanations from the simple to the salacious to the sinister.
He had been stricken by the particularly devastating strain of flu going around Moscow just now.
He sneaked off to Switzerland for the birth of his love child. He had a stroke.
The victim of a palace coup, he was imprisoned within the Kremlin.
He was dead, aged 62. Dmitry S. Peskov, the presidential spokesman, treated all the health questions with a certain wry humor initially, coming up with new and inventive ways to say, “He’s fine.”
Yet, the fact that the story proved impossible to quash underscored the uneasy mood gripping the Russian capital for months now, an atmosphere in which speculation about the health of just one man can provoke fears about death and succession.AND THEN THERE'S THIS:
3 comments:
The New York Post suggests Putin may have been in Switzerland to attend the birth of his daughter.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/13/putin-in-switzerland-for-birth-of-his-lovechild/
Hi Pasto,
Trucks was probably construction material.
See: #Kremlin yesterday:night time construction for Crimea Annexation party or big announcement?
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/576714319687221248 …
Just pray Rogozin doesn't become president of Mother Russia.
OT
WTOP-DC: American who contracted Ebola arrives at Maryland hospital March 13, 2015 4:32PM
"BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — An American health care worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in a Sierra Leone treatment unit is in serious condition after arriving at the National Institutes of Health’s hospital near Washington, officials said Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was checking on people in Sierra Leone, including other Americans, who had contact with the health care worker and may have been exposed to the virus."
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YahooNews: At least 10 Americans being flown to US after possible Ebola exposure - 1 hour ago
"(Reuters) - At least 10 Americans possibly exposed to the deadly Ebola virus were being flown to the United States from Sierra Leone for observation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.
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They will be transported by non-commercial air transport and will be housed near the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, or Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the CDC said.
All of the individuals who are being flown back to the United States are free of symptoms, the CDC said."
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