Russian President Vladimir Putin has laughed off days of frenzied "rumours" over his health and whereabouts as he reappeared in public after an unusually long 10-day absence.
Emerging after days of speculation that he was either ill or had even been deposed in a palace coup, Putin on Monday met with the leader of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan just outside Saint Petersburg.
The typically tardy Putin was two hours late but showed up looking relaxed with no visible signs of ill-health, quelling the rumours that had nevertheless highlighted the fragility of Russia's tightly-controlled political system dominated by one man.
"We would be bored if there were no rumours," Putin said as he met Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov took delight in mocking the rumours.
"So everyone has now seen the paralysed president captured by generals who has just returned from Switzerland where he was delivering a baby," he quipped.
"We no longer want to talk about this. Everything is good."
But observers said the reaction underscored the brittleness of the personality-based political system he has created after emasculating all forms of open opposition, whether in parliament, business or the major media.
The usually omnipresent Putin, 62, had last been seen in public on March 5 at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
While the Kremlin kept releasing footage of Putin in meetings, many speculated that the footage had been filmed much earlier than when it was broadcast.
The internet and foreign media lit up with speculation that Putin had died, had been deposed or that his rumoured girlfriend, a former Olympics gymnast, had secretly had a baby in Switzerland.
Morbid jokes and gags spread on Russian social networks - one of the last bastions of free speech in Russia - and the hashtag #Putinumer (#Putindead) trended on Twitter.
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