Putin: 'Life Would Be Boring Without Rumors'

So it looks like he may have had the flu after all:

'It's Boring Without Rumors': Putin Appears In Public After Week Of MSM Hysteria

Life would be boring without rumors, Vladimir Putin said after appearing on public in St Petersburg on Monday.

Earlier, western media succumbed to hysteria, asking “Where is Putin?” and suggesting that the Russian president might have fallen ill.

Putin met his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev on Monday in his first public meeting open to the press since March 5.

Earlier social media were boiling with tweets and blogposts about the mysterious alleged disappearance of the Russian leader. After Putin canceled a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel on March 11, sympathetic users suggested he may have been ill. This theory was denied by the Kremlin.