Speculation keeps roiling as Russian President Putin remains out of sight

MOSCOW (Xinhua) - There has been increasing speculation about what might have happened to Russian President Vladimir Putin since Wednesday when news broke that a trilateral summit scheduled to take place later of the week among leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in Astana, the national capital of Kazakhstan, was postponed for unknown reasons.

The most prevailing guess is that the meeting was delayed probably because the Russian head of state had fallen ill, which the Kremlin denied immediately.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday dismissed what he called rumors about Putin's poor health, saying that the president was in "absolutely good health." Peskov joked the next day that those spreading rumors about Putin's illness may suffer from the " spring fever."

"He (Putin) is holding meetings all the time, but not all of them are public," the spokesman was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "There is no need to worry. Everything is fine."

On Thursday afternoon, however, the Kremlin again announced that the president would skip the regular meeting of the Federal Security Service's board scheduled for the day, which he routinely chairs.

The Kremlin website has, on the other hand, kept publishing brief updates of Putin's activities in a bid to dampen the fully- aroused curiosity about the whereabouts of the president following his disappearance from the public.

A Russian state television unexpectedly ran a brief footage Friday showing President Putin was meeting with the Supreme Court head Vyacheslav Lebedev.

In the same day, the Kremlin also posted at its website two more announcements about Putin's planned meetings next week, including his meeting with President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan and leader of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov on March 16 and 18, respectively.