"It would be boring without gossip," Putin told reporters outside St. Petersburg in his first public event since March 5, according to The Washington Post, but he offered no explanation for missing meetings and postponing a state visit.
The 62-year-old Russian leader did not appear to be ill, according to The Washington Post, as he met with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev in the Constantine Palace outside St. Petersburg, according to Associated Press reports.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Thursday that Putin would not be attending a meeting with the Federal Security Service. A planned trip to Kazakhstan was also rescheduled for this week. Peskov adamantly maintained that Putin was healthy, according to The Washington Post.
According to The Washington Post, the Kyrgyz president - encouraged by the Kremlin - said Putin "drove me around the grounds, he himself sat at the wheel," as testament to Putin's health.
Putin's withdrawal from the public eye came after the murder of a main Putin critic, Boris Nemtsov. The authorities in Russia claim Nemtsov was the target of Islamists from Chechnya, but Nemtsov's supporters called the arrests a cover-up.
Putin had once before pulled a disappearing act in 2012 and rumors about his health ran wild. No explanations about that departure from public were given at that time.