Is Putin hiding away?

December is usually a busy month for Vladimir Putin, but not this year. In the run-up to Christmas, Russia’s president typically holds his annual press conference. But this time the event has been cancelled. Putin’s annual presidential address to the Russian federal assembly – that was pushed back from the summer – has also been canned. And Putin will also be absent from the traditional New Year’s Eve ice hockey game on Red Square. Putin’s yearly telethon, where ordinary Russians can phone in and have a chat with the president (indefinitely postponed from earlier in the year), too has been axed.

Such events in the Kremlin calendar are annual touchstones for Putin to ‘connect’ with the Russian people. They are highly-orchestrated pieces of televised theatre, of course, but in the absence of free and fair elections they allow a veneer of authenticity and integrity to remain in the relationship between Putin and his people.