KABUL: (Middle East Press) The Russian president Vladimir Putin has reappeared in public on Monday after a curiously long 10-day absence that unleashed frenzied speculation about the whereabouts and health of the Russian strongman.
His reappearance came after it was revealed that he was ready to place his nuclear attack forces on alert when he seized Crimea a year ago.
Putin, commenting on suggestions that he had been forced to lie low because of ill health, said that life without rumors would be boring.
He refused to explain his absence. The Bishkek leader claimed Putin was fit – and in macho mode.
“However the president explained that he knew the West could have intervened, and had been ‘ready’ to put his nuclear arsenal on alert, adding: ‘I talked with colleagues and told them that Crimea is our historic territory. We were ready to do it.'”
The Russian president’s revelation was aired in a pre-recorded TV interview broadcast at the end of last week.
Putin went on to say: ‘Russian people live there, they are in danger and we cannot leave them.’
However the president explained that he knew the West could have intervened, and had been ‘ready’ to put his nuclear arsenal on alert, adding: ‘I talked with colleagues and told them that Crimea is our historic territory. We were ready to do it.’
The Kremlin has since claimed it has the right to station nuclear weapons on the Crimean peninsula.
Putin’s absence occurred amid rumors of illness, a coup, or his Olympic gymnast ‘lover’ Alina Kabayeva giving birth to a child in Switzerland.
