To get close to the Russian leader, who has adopted a strict teleworking regime, his few visitors must be confined for 14 days and pass various tests to ensure they are virus-free.
In Vladimir Putins bubble it is not easy for the coronavirus to enter Protective measures to approach the Russian president have always been very severe even for a president Since the outbreak of covid19 the requirements are even more extreme Unlike other world leaders Putin from the beginning of the pandemic restricted his agenda and public events to the maximum
Most of the time he remains in selfisolation at his residence on the outskirts of Moscow His few facetoface appointments outside the system must pass a couple of negative coronavirus tests but also remain 14 days in quarantine in facilities endorsed by the Kremlins security services to ensure that they are indeed clean
Russia reaches record contagion figures in this second wave with almost 17000 new infections and an average of 300 deaths a day but the authorities refuse to reintroduce containment measures that already in spring had a great impact on the stagnant Russian economy and opts for recommendations
Meanwhile Putin 67 does follow them to the letter The Russian president has adopted a fairly strict teleworking system and presides over meetings with his cabinet and the rest of the Administration by videoconferences broadcast on state channels so frequently that his NovoOgaryovo office with its beige armchair its display of phones and their screensaver with the immutable image of the night Kremlin have become a wellknown image
Putin has had no official trips outside the country and has cut back on visits and contacts with his foreign counterparts as much as possible In the few public events that he has led such as the meeting with members of the Senate last month he remained at a distance of about ten meters from the rest of the attendees
Nor have the regular journalists who cover the Kremlin and who usually go everywhere with the Russian president have been able to approach him since March except for his regular photographer and a small team that recorded an interview last August
In addition the Federal Security Service has equipped the Kremlin facilities and his residence in NovoOgaryovo with special disinfection tunnels Anyone who has to access the rooms that the Russian president runs through has to go through this facility similar to a car wash gallery which emits a chemical mist
The tunnels are portable and were manufactured especially for the Russian Administration by Mizotty a company dedicated to the production of industrial cleaning equipment in the Penza region explains its deputy director Natalia Spirina
The person in charge warns that she cannot give more details of the tunnels commissioned by such a prominent client Mizotty cannot guarantee the effectiveness of the special tunnels against the virus either but Spririna points out that they emit a mist of microparticles of a disinfectant substance recognized and authorized by the Russian consumer rights watchdog
Since the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov spoke of the special tunnels and the Russian media released the video of one of the models of the installation Mizotty has received several requests from other state organizations shopping centers or football clubs Countries such as Kazakhstan have also been interested in these galleries
Putins attitude contrasts radically with the image on the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities where the use of masks is not too frequent where bars and restaurants are full But the virus has already penetrated Putins close circle In April the Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was infected later several of his ministers and his spokesman Peskov
As a former KGB spy Putin has always maintained an extremely cautious mindset He even has a taster to prove that none of the food he takes has been poisoned as he acknowledged this year and he has been seen drinking from his own thermos at some summits And his security service carries not only his own napkin but a set of salt and pepper for the Russian leader who has been in power for two decades
The pandemic and its management is a very important test for Putin and for his image remarks the political scientist Alexánder Morózov who has studied his biography in depth from his studied annual speeches to visits to his former teacher or his photographed images of the sports leader and strong man with a naked torso
An illness of the Russian leader with no successor in sight and less so now that constitutional reform allows him to run again for the presidency would trigger a gigantic political crisis in the country he says
The Russian president has no plans to resume public events or travel abroad until he receives the vaccine against covid19 which has been registered by Russia Sputnik V But while other prominent people including one of his daughters or the mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobianin 62 have already been vaccinated Putin has not yet received immunization When it comes to the head of state it is normal that special precautionary measures are applied said the Kremlin spokesman
Even when Russia declared that it had flattened the contagion curve Putin did not lower his guard In June restaurants and clubs again welcomed customers and stores that had closed due to the measures reopened tourist trips to the beach were resumed and a feeling closer to that old normality was returned to the country
On June 24 more than a month after the original date postponed due to pandemic restrictions the prominent parade was held for the 75th anniversary of the Red Armys victory over theyou Nazis a key date for his speech of patriotic exaltation
Putin then received several of his counterparts from the former Soviet republics in Red Square and surrounded himself with veterans of the Second World War But to sit in the outer bleachers next to the president the military elders had to first go through several coronavirus tests and a 14day stay in a hotel
The pattern has been repeated regardless of the size of the visitor from a scientist to the director of a major stateowned company according to a report by Russian research outlet Proekt which has documented the strict rules
One of the few who has met multiple times facetoface with Putin since the pandemic broke out has been according to the Kremlins website meeting log Igor Sechin head of the Rosneft oil company and one of his closest allies A stark contrast to the agenda of the President of the United States Donald Trump
A short meeting requires immense preparation Before the Russian leader decorated his work with a medal the prominent academic Georgi Rykovanov 66 spent two weeks in one of the two hotels in the spa town of Sochi controlled by the Federal Security Service and reserved especially for it at least until the end of the year
They were also there before being transferred to Moscow about thirty employees of the nuclear industry who were able to chat closely with Putin according to Proekt Fourteen days of quarantine to take a picture with President Putin and perhaps shake his hand
