After Putin meets again with Russia’s business leaders, Kremlin releases footage hiding their faces, apparently to avoid further sanctions

On Monday, the Kremlin released a video showing Vladimir Putin meeting with representatives of the largest businesses in Russia. It was only the third time he’s held such a meeting since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the footage is noteworthy for showing only the backs of the heads of the business people in attendance, the news outlet Agentstvo Media reported.

The president famously sat down with Russia’s top business owners on February 24, 2022 — the day he ordered the invasion of Ukraine — and the Kremlin released photographs from the event. Western states later imposed sanctions against many of the businessmen who appeared in these images, apparently interpreting their attendance as proof of their complicity in the war against Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin met a second time with business leaders in November 2023 at his presidential residence outside Moscow, but the Kremlin never released footage from that event.