KIEV, Ukraine -- Putin's back.
After his mysterious 11-day absence from public view, the Russian president appeared healthy and grinning in a very visible meet with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Almazbek Atambayev, in front of journalists and television cameras in St. Petersburg on Monday.
In the 11 days Putin, 62, went "missing" the head of state cancelled a string of meetings, including his annual meet with Russia's domestic intelligence organization, the FSB. Speculation as to why ran the gamut. Rumors from a bout with the flu to Botox treatment gone bad, a secret love child being born and even death swirled.
But the Russian leader emerged shaking hands with Atambayev in the typical style described by his press secretary last week as so strong it could "break hands."
His first words: Life is "boring without rumors."
The Russian leader was last seen in public on March 5, when he hosted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Moscow.
Встреча Путина и Атамбаева началась pic.twitter.com/Fv9mLwy9dw— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) March 16, 2015
Атамбаев: Владимир Владимирович сейчас сам за рулем меня покатал по территории. подтверждаю - он в отличной форме pic.twitter.com/7NxKpwz9y1— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) March 16, 2015
So it was Atambayev to verify Putin's health. Putin laughed as Kyrgyz leader spoke about him not just walking but also driving.— Ilya Arkhipov (@world_reporter) March 16, 2015
Putin's return comes as the Russian military on Monday launched sweeping military maneuvers involving 38,000 servicemen, more than 50 surface ships and submarines and 110 aircraft in the Arctic and other areas, a show of force the president ordered ahead of his appearance.
Monday also marks the one year anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea, which the president discussed in detail in a two-and-a-half-hour-long documentary film aired Sunday on the state-run Rossiya 1 TV channel.
Laden with all the dramatic trappings of a Hollywood action flick -- military helicopters buzzing over the Black Sea to rescue Ukraine's ousted pro-Russia president, heavily armed stealth special forces swooping in under the cover of night to back local "self-defense" militia against "fascist" Ukrainian forces -- the film depicts the Russian side of an event that triggered the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine and revived Cold War-style tensions with the West.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.