Visits, kisses, stick figures: in the week after the failed uprising, Russia’s president is more present than ever. The Kremlin seems to be torn between two strategies.
Rarely has the President been as present as this week. Vladimir Putin – distributing kisses, drawing stick figures, visiting mosques. He has not been seen so close to the people since the pandemic, probably longer. The Kremlin’s PR strategy after the crisis appears to be not only portraying the Kremlin ruler as a beloved father of the country, but also as very close to the pulse of Russia.