Vladimir Putin, who continues to reside in a Covid-19 “bunker,” spoke while standing some 60 feet away from diplomats.
The appointment of 17 new US and EU ambassadors to Moscow was announced by 70-year-old Putin during a meeting of the Russian Security Council today.
The president, though, was a tiny dot in a suit to the diplomats gathered in the opulent Alexander Hall of the Kremlin Palace.
Due to “sanitary restrictions,” according to Putin, he was unable to meet with the envoys.
He told them afar: ‘Sadly our ceremony is coming to an end.
‘Because sanitary restrictions are still in force, we won’t be able to speak face to face.
‘But I’m sure we’ll have this chance multiple times during your time here. I am wishing you all the best.’
Roland Galharague, representing the EU, as well as new ambassadors of NATO states Norway and Denmark, attended the credential ceremony.
Among the other delegates included US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy, the first woman to ever hold the post since her appointment last December.
Kremlin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov stressed Putin did not intend a separate ceremony with Tracy.
‘Relations between Russia and the United States, from which global security and stability directly depend, are in a deep crisis,’ Putin told Tracy.
‘It is based on fundamentally different approaches to the formation of the modern world order.’
Living under strict personal quarantine for the past four years, Putin is said to be ‘pathologically afraid for his life’, a senior Russian security official said last week.
Gleb Karakulov, 35, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), said the ‘war criminal’ has become a recluse ‘mortally afraid’ of coronavirus.
As the outbreak of the virus in 2020 upended the world, Putin retreated from most of his public appearances and stopped travelling.
Karakulov told the Dossier Centre: ‘Our president has lost touch with the world.
‘He has been living in an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers.
‘He is pathologically afraid for his life. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum.
‘He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends.’
Putin’s health has long been a fevered topic of speculation, from cancelled speeches to the occasional cough.
Western intelligence officials, however, have dismissed long-standing rumours that the Russian leader is unwell.