Health issues or saving face on Ukraine? Why Vladimir Putin cancelled his annual press conference

Vladimir Putin’s big end of year press conference is off – marking the first time the Russian president will not hold his meeting with the media in a decade. The Kremlin, making the announcement on Tuesday, said “we hope the president will after all find an opportunity to talk" to the press. “There will not be (a press conference) before the New Year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that Putin “regularly speaks to the press, including on foreign visits.” The lack of a reason being offered by the Kremlin for the unusual development has left many wondering – is Putin saving face or facing health issues? Let’s take a closer look at Putin’s press conferences and the possible reasons why it has been canned: Putin’s press conferences Putin, who has been in power since 2000, has held a press conference in December most years of his rule. During the media gathering – a major political event in the country – Putin takes questions from the press and the public in a marathon that usually lasts several hours. As per The Moscow Times, though around 500 Russian and foreign journalists were invited, COVID-19 restrictions left many unable to apply for accreditation. As per newspaper, several independent outlets including Novaya Gazeta did not receive an invite. According to the BBC, Putin’s hours-long press conferences, attended by a bevy of foreign and domestic journalists, have been carefully stage managed. Putin has run the gamut during these conferences – from fielding questions from regional reporters about poor roads to opining on geopolitics. But critics deride these conferences as stage shows, saying they offer nothing more than pro-Kremlin reporters to flatter the president. They said that while a few independent journalists have been present, they have not frequently been afforded the opportunity to ask questions. Putin also has cancelled another annual fixture this year, a televised call-in show in which he takes questions from the public to nurture his father-of-the-nation image. And he has so far failed to deliver the annual televised state-of-the-nation address to parliament, a constitutional obligation. Anti-war sentiment spooks Kremlin? Some have speculated that the anti-war sentiment in Russia – in the backdrop of Ukraine’s recent successes – may have spooked the Kremlin. “Although questions are almost certainly usually vetted in advance, the cancelation is likely due to increasing concerns about the prevalence of anti-war feeling in Russia,” the UK Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter. [caption id=“attachment_11808571” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Russia has seen its effort stall in Ukraine. AP[/caption] “Kremlin officials are almost certainly extremely sensitive about the possibility that any event attended by Putin could be hijacked by unsanctioned discussion about the ‘special military operation.’” Former US ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told CNN said it was a sign of concern about his domestic support. “He’d rather wheel out Viktor Bout and have him recite the script. If you think those were his words, you’re sadly mistaken. That’s the Kremlin speaking.” The Kremlin has muzzled any criticism of its invasion of Ukraine from the liberal anti-war camp, shutting independent media outlets and criminalizing the spread of any information that differs from the official view — including calling the campaign a war. But it has faced an increasingly vocal criticism from Russian hardliners, who have denounced the president as weak and indecisive and called for ramping up strikes on Ukraine. CBS quoted political analyst Abbas Gallyamov as saying that Putin cancelled the annual news conference because “he has nothing to say from the point of view of strategy.” Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political expert, noted that Putin’s decision to ditch the news conference and his failure so far to deliver the state-of-the-nation address reflected his hesitancy about the future course of action. “Shall we forge ahead and defeat the enemy?” he wrote, reflecting hardliners’ calls for ramping up missile strikes on Ukraine. “Or on the contrary, shall we prepare for a difficult but necessary compromise?” The Telegram channel of General SVR said, “The recent strike on military airfields deep in Russia has caused Putin serious concern.” The outlet further claimed that Putin and his family are expected to spend their New Year in a bunker located on the east of the Ural Mountains. Another Telegram channel that claims to receive intelligence from the Kremlin informants said, “Attacks on military airfields in Russia have seriously alarmed Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Despite the president’s order to strengthen security measures at strategic facilities, the already prohibitive security measures of Vladimir Putin himself have really intensified. Putin has begun to spend more time in bunker-type premises, it added.

The Kremlin’s concerns make sense given that Putin fielded many questions on Ukraine during his four-hour event in 2021.

“This is not our choice, we do not want this,” Putin said last December when answering a question about a potential conflict with Kyiv, as per The Moscow Times. His views on Ukraine have changed drastically since the launch of the invasion when Moscow had expected fighting to last just days before Kyiv’s capitulation. Just last week, Putin warned of a ’long military intervention’ in Ukraine. That came as the one-year mark of the conflict is fast-approaching, and Russian forces have missed most of their key military goals including toppling the Ukrainian government, capturing the Donbas region and annexing four territories. “As for the long process of (seeing) results of the special military operation, of course, this is a lengthy process,” Putin said. But Russian troops at no point entirely controlled any of the territories and last month were forced out from the capital of the southern Kherson region after a months-long Ukraine counter-offensive. In September, Putin announced Russia was mobilising hundreds of thousands of people to bolster Moscow’s struggling forces after a series of battlefield setbacks, particularly in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine. Since the capture of Kherson city, fighting in Ukraine has focused on the industrial Donbas region, where Russian forces have been pushing to capture the frontline city of Bakhmut. The Donetsk region has been partially controlled by Russian forces since 2014, when Moscow-backed separatists wrested control of the Donbas near the Russian border and Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula. Health issues? Rumours about Putin’s health, which have been swirling for years, have only intensified over the past year.

The Sun has reported that the Russian leader may be suffering from at least one undisclosed ailment.

Newsweek quoted Lawrence C Reardon, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, as saying, “No doubt the health divisions of the world’s intelligence agencies have been investigating similar tells and rumours. Perhaps early knowledge of any sickness was the reason why Putin staged several of his shirtless vacation episodes riding horses and handling weapons to prove not only that he was youthful, powerful, but also healthy.” “This was very strange behaviour for any world leader and was the topic of ridicule by other G-7 leaders this past February. Perhaps their jocularity implied that they knew more about Putin’s health condition. All speculation, but such behaviour was very strange for Putin and the world leaders,” he added. RadarOnline quoted Russian political analyst Valery Solovey as saying Putin would leave office soon. ‘He will most certainly leave before 2024. It is even possible he will announce his departure before the New Year, but this depends on the state of his health.’ A report emerged on Wednesday that the Kremlin is suffering from a major flu outbreak which has left several officials infected. It is speculated that Putin will soon go into isolation. Novaya Gazeta Europe said that “many people in the Kremlin are down with flu.” Russian news agency TASS reported that the H1N1 flu has hit Russia hard. Anna Popova, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection told the news outlet, “Yes, this year, flu came to stay. The most unpleasant thing in this situation is that it is precisely the flu variant that causes the most serious damage to health. This is the flu A virus (H1N1) of the pandemic year of 2009. In 2009, it emerged for the first time as a type of flu with high spread potential and triggered the 2009-2020 pandemic.” The New York Post quoting a Telegram channel with apparent links with Putin’s security team reported that he recently fell at his official Moscow home, causing himself to “involuntarily defecate.” According to the report, the 70-year-old reportedly fell five steps before landing on his tailbone. The impact caused Putin to “involuntarily defecate” due to “cancer affecting his stomach and bowels,” the Telegram channel said. Notably, last month during a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel, Putin’s hands appeared to shake and become purple, as per the UK-based outlet Express. The report added that he was spotted moving his legs uncomfortably. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.