Guess Who’s Not Dead: Vladimir Putin!

Are you dead? No? Congratulations, you now have something in common with Russian President Vladimir Putin:

‘It’s boring without rumors’: #Putin appears in public after week of MSM hysteria http://t.co/8aQbqmWWNo pic.twitter.com/UynTVbyOyZ

— RT (@RT_com) March 16, 2015

After a ten day absence that led to rumors of ill health and a round of “Where is Vladimir Putin” SEO plays, the Russian autocrat appeared yesterday and hosted Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atanbayev, looking, according to all observers, perfectly fine. “Life would be boring without rumors,” he reportedly said upon his reappearance.

Putin had cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan Wednesday, and anonymous sources within the Kremlin began whispering that his health was in jeopardy, a blow to the charismatic leader’s blustery image of fighting bears and riding tigers.

The prolonged absence also carried wafts of other despot disappearances, among then Kim Jong-Il, whose absence presaged his death, and Fidel Castro, who has been trotted out sporadically for years to assure the Cuban public he is still functional.

RT mocked the western media’s freakout.

[h/t NBC News]

[Image via screengrab]

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