Putin a smile on people’s faces! Russian madman chuckles as he gets girl, 8, to call his bemused finance chief during Kremlin tour in latest PR footage put out since Wagner ‘coup’ attempt rocked Moscow
- Putin staged a phone call with a Dagestani child, asking for a budget grant
- It is the latest PR stunt since the failed ‘coup’ by Wagner Group in late June
Vladimir Putin hosted an eight-year-old girl in the Kremlin on Tuesday, joining him in a bizarre call to his finance minister to ask for a budget grant for her home region.
The Kremlin shared video of Putin welcoming Raisat Akipova in his latest appearance since the apparent armed mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries in June.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov initially sounded bemused by the call and failed to respond to the girl’s greeting, but quickly agreed to the extra funding for her region.
‘Excellent!’ Putin responded, before telling the girl: ‘We’ve got 5 billion roubles for Dagestan’ – a sum equivalent to $55.6 million.
Dagestan, a southern region and one of Russia’s poorest, has drafted many of Russia’s conscripts since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shows 8 year old Raisat Akipova from Derbent, at his desk at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets 8 year old Raisat Akipova, from Derbent, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 4, 2023
On Tuesday, Putin chuckled with amusement during the conversation and a similar call that he made with Raisat to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
READ MORE: Putin is given rock star welcome and even poses for kissing selfies with adoring fans in rare interaction with the public – prompting claims it’s a body double
The girl, holding a bouquet of flowers, thanked Siluanov when prompted by the president.
Putin told Raisat he had invited her and her parents to Moscow because he had been ‘upset’ by seeing a picture of her in tears after failing to get to see him during his Dagestan trip.
Her visit was a sequel to a visit by Putin to Dagestan last week when, unusually, he mingled with a large crowd of people.
The Kremlin cited that as evidence of the president’s ‘astounding’ support in Russian society, days after the brief mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group that had prompted him to warn of the risk of civil war in Russia.
Footage shared showed the President lapping up praise from the crowd in Derbent.
Last year, videos shared on social media gave a different impression, with women in Dagestan seen chasing police away from a rally amid protests against conscription.
Some in the capital of Makhachkala, one of Russia’s poorest regions, held placards and shouted ‘no to war’ as they faced down the Kremlin’s shock troops at a large anti-war demo in September – even as riot police fired warning shots into the air to frighten them.
More than 2,000 anti-war protestors were arrested in a week of clashes late last year.
Independent Russian investigative journalists reported in October last year that the regions of Russia experiencing the highest rates of poverty were mobilising the largest share of conscripts to be sent to Ukraine.
Some 2.6% of reservists in Dagestan were reported to have been recruited amid the initial drive to boost numbers late last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Raisat Akipova, an 8-year-old girl from Derbent, who failed to see the head of state during his working trip to the Republic of Dagestan where he also talked with local residents, at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 4, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin hugs and exchanges flowers with Raisat Akipova
On 25 June 2023, Putin assured the nation that a bloody civil war had been averted after a ‘failed’ Wagner coup, which saw mercenaries supporting Russian armed forces turn and march towards Moscow that weekend.
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin meanwhile said he only called off his group’s surge to avoid spilling Russian blood.
He claimed that the uprising was meant in protest at the ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has clashed regularly and publicly with senior officials in Russia’s armed forces, despite their joint efforts in Ukraine.
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