The Kremlin reportedly spent $85m on quarantine accommodation for staff and visitors coming into contact with Vladimir Putin
When Russia first recorded a surge in coronavirus cases in March last year, Mr Putin donned a yellow hazmat suit to visit Moscow’s main covid-19 hospital. Statecameras captured him taking selfies with staff and shaking hands with the hospital’s chief physician, Denis Protsenko. “No head of state has so far dared to come so close to the infected,” gushed the Kremlin’s chief propagandist, Dmitry Kiselyov, on his Sunday night news show.
But in the months since then, perhaps no world leader has been as shielded from the virus. Days after Mr Putin’s hospital visit, Mr Protsenko announced that he himself was sick with covid-19, and Mr Putin holed up in his residence outside Moscow, haranguing officials by video-link as his approval ratings sank. Special tunnels were installed at the residence to douse visitors in disinfectant.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Putin in hiding"
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