Vladimir Putin has reportedly hunkered down in a remote palace on ‘holiday’ as widespread protests spread through Russia.
There has been severe backlash to the Kremlin’s new plans for partial mobilisation.
Upwards of 300,000 people could be called up to fight as the invasion of Ukraine continues.
Desperation efforts to boost numbers even resulted in officers turning up at the door of a 40-year-old man – who it emerged had in fact died in 2020.
Activists fear mobilisation is being enforced in poor, ethnic minority regions to avoid triggering further anger in major cities.
Putin is now rumoured to have disappeared to a palace in the forest at Valdai, putting himself a safe distance away from the chaos triggered by his mobilisation announcement.
Journalist Farida Rustamova claims he has pre-recorded a number of videos to use over the coming days.
Sources say he is ‘resting’ at his Valdai home – rumoured to be surrounded by peaceful lakes and majestic forests.
His disappearance is likely to trigger more rumours about his health.
Ms Rustamova claims a trusted source said ‘that since last Wednesday evening, Putin has been resting “body and soul” in his residence in Valdai in the Novgorod region’.
The residence is said to boast a three-storey spa complex with a ‘personal beauty parlour’ nicknamed the ‘temple to his asceticism’.
Two floors are reportedly hidden underground area with a cryo chamber for extreme cold therapy.
The sprawling lakeside estate, previously filmed in drone footage, includes a stable, golf course, mini-golf course, VIP restaurant with a cinema, bowling, billiard room and even a mini-casino.
The complex has been dubbed Putin’s ‘most secret official dacha’.
The Kremlin has denied Putin was on vacation but rumours of his ‘holiday’ have continued to spread at rapid pace.
Riot police have already detained hundreds of protesters in Moscow and in St Petersburg, as well as Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita and Ivanovo.
The latest arrest total as of stay stood at 651.
Many Russians have reportedly received phone calls telling them to enlist, or officials have turned up on their doorstep ordering men to present themselves for military service.
Following Putin’s announcement that civilians were to be conscripted to go and fight in Ukraine, flights to countries which still offer visa-free travel to Russians sold out within hours, with prices skyrocketing.
Flights from Moscow to Dubai, which would have cost around £181 in January, have surged to more than £8,000 per seat.
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