Mr. Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, He said Presidential workplaces outside Moscow and Sochi are not identical. “This is not true,” he told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday. Peskov said the Proekt report was part of a series of recent shows about Putin’s personal life that was a “media campaign, media attack” on the president.
“The president has many offices and he has no identical offices,” Peskov said. He challenged Proekt’s use of flight records to contradict official statements about Mr Putin’s whereabouts. He said that the presidential planes are sometimes stationed outside Moscow, but he refused to discuss specific flights, noting that the head of the state’s movements are classified for security reasons.
Putin told Russian media that he rejected plans to use the trick to protect his security. In February, he told the TASS news agency that, early in his term, he had refused to use a double body to trick would-be assassins.
This year, verifying Mr. Putin’s whereabouts has become more difficult as he has taken extraordinary precautions against the virus, even by the standards of other heads of state.
Russian journalists covering the president have rarely seen him in the Kremlin pool up close since March, Reporters said. Visitors are required to self-quarantine for up to two weeks before reaching their breathing distance. And even then, before meeting Mr. Putin, they had to walk through a sterilization tunnel – a structure similar to an airport metal detector that sprays a fine spray of disinfectant.
The president had several televised meetings via video link, with state television over the summer posting a special report on the site, indicating the microphones and screens available for the meetings – identifying them as located in the government residence outside Moscow, rather than at the seaside.
One site Republished The story, T-Journal, sparked hundreds of comments from readers who fill in pictures of Mr Putin, who is appropriate and seriously managing the state business, sitting in offices that appear similar. Some found signs of hoax.
“Infuriatingly humble social media ninja. Devoted travel junkie. Student. Avid internet lover.”
