We start with the question everyone has asked this week: where is Russian President Vladimir Putin?
His last confirmed public sighting was on March 5 when he met Italy's Prime Minister. Since then, the Kremlin has released several pictures and videos of Putin, but none of them can be confirmed as new, and at least one of them has been confirmed as being old.
In this sense, today Putin is still 'missing.'
TV Rain, an embattled-but-independent Russian television outlet, reports that according to their sources Putin is in his resort residence on lake Lake Valdai, halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
TV Rain also notes that Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, refuses to comment on whether Putin has an illness.
Ekho Moskvy, on the other hand, reports that Putin will appear tomorrow at a scheduled meeting with the leader of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev. However, Ekho Moskvy (another embattled independent media outlet) also notes that it's not clear whether the press will be allowed to cover the event.
We'd caution, however, that there has been a near-total lack of transparency from the Russian government on Putin's whereabouts, or why he has been 'missing' for all of these days. Therefore, any news stories about Putin's activities should be taken with a grain of salt until he makes a confirmed public appearance.
-- James Miller