Kremlin has been reporting Putin’s meetings up to two months after the fact, with Russian president last seen in public on November 7

Recent reports from the Kremlin about Vladimir Putin’s official meetings contain inconsistencies indicating that they were published with a significant delay, independent journalist Farida Rustamova wrote on Wednesday on the Faridaily Telegram channel.

Delays in reporting on Putin’s activities are not new, Faridaily observed, as the Kremlin regularly employs this tactic to create the illusion that the president is working continuously. However, the gap between Putin’s actual meetings and the release of reports has increased in recent weeks.

For example, Kremlin reports indicate that on November 12, Vladimir Vasilyev, the head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, told Putin that his party was “actively participating” in preparing the federal budget. However, the draft budget was submitted to the State Duma on September 30 and had been approved in its first reading by the time of the meeting.

Similarly, Alexey Nechayev, leader of the New People party, reportedly discussed the budget in a meeting with Putin on November 19. However, as Rustamova pointed out, Nechayev attended an exhibition in the State Duma on the same day. Photos from the event show him wearing a different suit than in the pictures from the supposed meeting with Putin.

Faridaily cited its own sources as saying that the delay between Putin’s meetings and the reports of them on the Kremlin’s website may be as long as two months. Rustamova noted that Putin’s last public appearance was on November 7 at the Valdai Forum, and since then, the Kremlin has only released video statements and reports of bilateral meetings.

Rustamova speculated that even Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, might not know his whereabouts. Just hours before the publication of Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine yesterday, Peskov claimed that the changes had “not yet been formalized.”