UKC

Just a thought. I'm not sure if there have been any current images of Putin - making speeches, press briefings etc - over the last week or so.

Has he gone to ground? Better still, has he snuffed it?

Nice to see the leadership of this fine country is using a reputable source of intelligence!

He's hiding under the table.

Hasn't he hidden in a bunker, knowing full well pretty much the whole world other than China and India want his head on a stick?

Apparently, he has been missing now for 11 days and counting. As has the security guy.

Alan

So China and India are about 35% of the world population, hardly a negligible amount.  It's a very western perspective "that pretty much the whole world" is as bothered as we are by this.

China has been feeding its citizens the Russian flavour of propaganda, and their parody of social media is coming out strongly in support of Russia it seems.

I suspect a lot of Africa is not very bothered either way.  Closer to home, neither Serbia nor Hungary are exactly falling in to line on this.  

There's a smattering of countries across the map coming out in a pro-Russian view.  Perhaps more telling is the military support which is much more limited to UK/North American/Australian leaning.

I know where he is.

He's probably pissed off on his holidays somewhere, seeing as he doesn't seem to be arsed about the carnage he's created.

I fear you miss the point.  If even 35% of the world's population wanted him dead, that is still a high risk of that happening as far as he is concerned, hence why he'll be in a bunker somewhere safe, possibly even *in* China.  Crikey, even if it was just the US it'd be a significant risk.

'So China and India are about 35% of the world population, hardly a negligible amount.'

Yes that's true, but what proportion of that 33% would in fact prefer to have North American/Western Europe/Australian residence or would prefer Russian/Chinese/Indian?

'The West' has always had a sizeable political bloc opposing it but it's still what people aspire to, rightly or wrongly.

Is he going to trip over a rug...?

Lets hope they went to test out the ultra secure bunker and found out a)the comms didnt work and b)there was no doorhandle on the inside.

I'm not sure that population is the right yardstick.  It's not about how many people in the world live in countries where the government aren't bothered about this so much as how much of the world's military forces are owned by those countries with governments that are.

T.

If he's gone to ground it's not because of the risk of assassination by the US, it'll be because he's concerned his position within Russia is less secure than it was, the threat, if one exists, is from his own inner circle or the next ring out who'd likely still have some access normally. He'll already have been living essentially beyond the reach of external assassins with IEDs, rifles and covid of course. It's not as if he's universally loved or that the people and countries he's pissed off much closer to home than the US lack motivation and military-grade capability, I bet like other divisive world leaders with layers of good security you just can't plan to get a clear shot at him.

jk

Fair point.  If someone does bump him off it'll likely be a bit of good old Russian novichok on the bog chain, or similar.

I was trying to make the point saying “the whole world except India and China” means something quite a long way from the whole world; they’re far from an appendage.

In terms of your point, do you not think the threats Putin hides from are internal, not external?  Nations that won’t (overtly) put military forces in to Ukraine for fear of starting WW3 are hardly going to go after Putin in Moscow.  But a lot of people in Russia….

Interesting - just had a scan of news sites and twitter and can't find anyone else mentioning this. What I could find was lots of "statements" issued on his behalf, but as you say - no actual videos/footage. 

I heard he's gone where all right minded world leaders go in time of crisis... hiding inside a fridge.

I think Putin's probably a paranoid narcissist so yes, he'll be seeing plots wherever he looks.  Whereas once most of those would have been imaginary now, with the loss of face from the situation in Ukraine and the associated societal bite from sanctions, his suspicions will have more to support them.  I hope that there have been discussions in private places about how far is too far for the senior generals and who will do what to isolate and remove Putin; I suspect that's the only way this could end without sophisticated armaments being thrown out of the pram.

T.

I saw him in Needle Sports on saturday rummaging in the bargain gear box

Apart from the tv broadcast on the 31st.....

Was he in Ron Hills?

Especially given his habit of having his enemies murdered whenever possible. Bound to inform how he feels others will react to him where possible.

I heard it on a World Service news item this morning (which I can't seem to find again - R4 just randomly chooses items in the early morning) from a very knowledgeable-sounding American. However, I too would have expected it to be more reported by now had it been as he suggested.

Alan

No. Red and white striped jumper, black beret and thick, round-rimmed, black glasses.

I disagree. I'd say Putin is very notably *Not* a Narcissist. Compare him to a malignant narcissist, say the president of Turkmenistan (Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov)  who has many giant statues of himself, his favourite dog etc etc. How many official statues of Putin have you heard of? It's just not his thing. He is most likely a very high functioning and partially disguised psychopath and matches all 9 traits, but very unlikely to be a narcissist  (well not as a main trait anyway)

He is certainly paranoid on top of probably justified reasons to see plots. Some of those plots are probably genuine. Let's not forget the Russian foible of poisoning each other and the turbulent back stabbing nature of his position

Russia has stated that Putin wants to attend the G20 in Indonesia, and China is strongly backing him in this, maybe he's lying a bit low currently, but he wants to travel and pretend to be a normal and "democratic" leader

Maybe he just wants to be sure of a negative test and he's isolating before he travels.  He's a responsible sort.

Found him...  he was being filmed sending the FA of an epic VB0, Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi haven't yet released the film, but the below includes a quick teaser

youtube.com/watch?v=T1oqFeLwrN4&

If the Russian economy collapses as quickly as I hope it will he can be rejected on grounds of not being in the G20

I completely agree, but definitely China (and very likely India and Saudi Arabia) would veto booting Russia out of the G20. If The US, UK and others boycotted G20 (if Putin was there), it'd become a big conference for China, India and others to buddy up to Russia more closely - that approach would spectacularly backfire. So chances are he'll be there and we'll be there

He’s been a very naughty boy and he isn’t allowed out

It will just be postponed.....

I can see what you mean but I suspect it would be misleading to pin all narcissists to such specific acts like statue building. I'm sure they have widely different personalities, different cultural backgrounds and tell themselves different stories about the world.

He's shown photos of himself trying prove himself as manly (probably the least manly thing you could do and most unstatesman-like). And he had that huge show recently where he was the star. These could be types of propaganda exercises but they look more like narcissism to me.

I also suspect that Putin thinks of himself as the only person capable of ruling Russia competently which is why he holds on to power and that belief would be narcissistic.

In the documentary Unfit: the psychology of Donald Trump they were saying most ruthless authoritarian leaders would fit the diagnosis of malignant narcissist and iirc  Putin's name came up there.

I don’t know how long he hasn’t been seen but a couple of points:

There have been reports that he’s got some kind of illness and underwent a major medical procedure in early autumn. Apparently there are records showing several doctors including an oncologist being with him for a large part of the year. So any absence could be medical related.

He was (and still is?) paranoid about Covid, which is why he has spent a large part of the last two years in some bunker. I’m not saying this is why he might not have been seen lately but just wanted to mention this in response to some of the comments above.

Generally, I find it interesting (but not surprising) that politicians feel like they need to be in the public eye all the time. I’d find it entirely understandable if a president wasn’t seen for a week as they could just be busy with work that doesn’t involve public appearances (I guess beyond about a week it might start to become a bit odd). With our parliamentary system involving the PM needing to physically vote every so often, any prolonged absence would be harder to explain, though even then there are fallow periods and recesses in the parliamentary calendar.

To answer your question - in hell, I hope…

Well he turned up at Zhirinovsky's memorial service yesterday.......

d

Umm... check this 'Springtime for Hitler' moment:

https://twitter.com/PaulbernalUK/status/1507986495151525893?s=20&t=bZZx...

I'd say he's just a bit busy for full-on classic totalitarian narcissism.