One key sign shows Vladimir Putin has been rattled by Ukraine’s shock incursion across the Russian border into Kursk, a long-time Russia correspondent claims.
Writing for The Times, veteran journalist Nataliya Vasilyeva said the 71-year-old Kremlin leader tends to only do spontaneous meet and greets with supporters when he “desperately” needs political validation.
Putin, a former KGB officer, is often characterised as a reclusive and reluctant politician, who rarely comes into contact with the Russian public unless under serious domestic pressure.
Ms Vasilyeva noted a pattern of behaviour in response to major issues in the past, where Putin would suddenly break cover to meet Russian citizens.
She pointed to Putin‘s choreographed reaction after former Wagner private military company leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a failed coup that rocked Moscow on June 23, 2023.
Despite the strict Covid protocols Putin was said to be enforcing at the time, he emerged for a public walkabout in southern Russia‘s remote Caucasus region just four days later, posing for selfies and kissing a young girl.
A similar set piece saw Putin stopping his motorcade in the middle of the small town of Torzhok, northwest of Moscow, to meet a strategic place crowd of supporters, four days armed terrorists launched a wave of slaughter at a concert hall in the capital, killing 145 people on March 22.
Ms Vasilyeva said Putin’s trip out of Moscow on Tuesday was a similar attempt to reassert his control, after Ukrainian troops launched a lightning incursion into the Kursk region, taking control of some 500 square miles of territory, according to Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Ms Vasilyeva suggested his public outings are at pains to suggest that nothing out of the ordinary is occuring, and take place at carefully chosen locations.
She noted that Putin has never visited the site of the concert hall attack or met survivors and victims’ families, and has made only scant reference to Ukraine‘s Kursk incursion – describing it as a “situation”.
He’s also yet to address the nation on the attack, despite reports of nearly 200,000 people having to be evacuated from the Kursk and Belgorod regions of Russia.
Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky said the incursion was carried out to form a permanent buffer zone and prevent further attacks by Vladimir Putin‘s army across the border.It’s thought the attack also aimed to divert Russian troops away from the frontlines in Donetsk, where they continue to make substantial gains.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was not ready to conduct peace talks with Ukraine at the moment, given Kyiv’s attack in Kursk, while Ukraine has demanded a full withdrawal of Putin’s army from its territory before it will take part in talks.
Moscow said this week that a third bridge had been struck and damaged by Ukrainian forces on the Seym River that winds through the Kursk region, thought to be an attempt to prevent Russia from reaching and resupplying troops occupied territories.