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In a carefully choreographed double-act, Kyrgyz President
Almazbek Atambayev also vouched for the Russian leader's health,
saying that Putin "just now drove me around the grounds, he
himself sat at the wheel" after they met in St Petersburg.
Putin smiled easily as he sat before television cameras in the
Constantine Palace in Russia's second city in his first public
appearance since March 5.
"It would be boring without gossip," Putin, looking relaxed if
pale, told reporters.
Putin's absence from public view, a rare occurrence in Russia's
largely state-controlled media, had triggered a number of
theories about the leader, ranging from him suffering poor
health to being toppled in a palace coup by security hawks.
The Russian leader, 62, prides himself on a macho image, saying
in 2008 he worked like "galley slave" to run Russia.
(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin; Writing by Lidia Kelly and
Elizabeth Piper, editing by)
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