Putin’s Covid cocoon is a sign of his terror

Although he has been vaccinated, Vladimir Putin is self-isolating for at least a week after ‘dozens’ in his entourage came down with Covid. He is apparently showing no signs of being infected. And perhaps no wonder, as even by the standards of his usual presidential protection, since the start of the pandemic Putin has been shielded within a formidable bio-security regime.

Those due to meet him face-to-face are tested, required to isolate beforehand, and – if visiting him either in the Kremlin or his mansion outside Moscow – has to pass through a tunnel fogged with aerosolised disinfectant and bathed in germ-killing ultraviolet light.

Back in March last year, he wore a full hazmat suit to visit Moscow’s main coronavirus hospital, which looked a little excessive, but then removed his gloves to shake hands with its chief doctor, Denis Protsenko. When Protsenko then came down with Covid, Putin all but stopped his public appearances.