Something is HAPPENING in Russia

[Stormwarden]

Okay, so any new news on this? I'm rather curious about what's happening?

[niam2023]

I think he met with a wealthy billionaire named Mr. Valentine, and disagreed with Val's scheme to take over the world because it wasn't his own idea.

So Valentine stashed him in the deepest level of his bunker. The room is stocked with photos of Boris Yeltsin.

[Stormwarden]

By Monday,we'll know for sure, according to the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/russia-putin-seen-in-public.html?_r=0

[Askold]

The exact phrasing that the journalists used when originally explaining why Putin hasn't been seen is that he was "doing paperwork" which is the explanation they used everytime Jeltsin was so sick that he was unable to do his job. The phrase actually took a life of its own in Russia, as everyone knew it as the excuse that it was. (They also liked to add that "his handshake was still firm" to "prove" that he was still ok...)

So that would suggest that Putin is sick. Or it could be a red herring.

[Barbarella]

I wonder if this is just going to turn out to be a big load of nothing....like what happened with Kim Jong Un?

[Old Viking]

When there's a coup, followed by a counter-coup, the second event is called a coup-coup.  Just so you know.

[Askold]

I thought I already commented here about Putin's reappearance, but apparently not.

Anyway...
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/16/world/russia-putin/index.html

He makes jokes about this but it is undeniable that his disappearance has revealed a massive weakness in Russian society and politics. Any appearance of weakness from Putin was so devastating that they had to fabricate stories about him meeting up people and publish them in news (which they accidentally did before the meetings happened...) and the whole world was watching them shake in their boots. This means that the next time something like this happens (when he gets flu or anything more severe) we are likely to see his rule start to crack just like it did now.

And the danger isn't just that someone tries to usurp him, the bigger problem is something rather more surprising. Russia seemed to be paralyzed without Putin. He has turned himself into the one supreme ruler and without him even the daily proceedings are in trouble.

So on one hand he has proven proven the strength of his grip as Russia can't survive without him, on the other hand he has revealed the weakness of Russia as it can't survive without him. (Or at least the current regime can't.)

Or maybe Nemetsov was just faking his death and used these 10 days to cut off Putin's face and plant it on himself.

Or maybe Putin was replaced by five squirrels in a human-suit.

[niam2023]

Face / Off 2: How We Do It In Russia.