A bookshelf can speak volumes about its owner. In Russian President Vladimir Putin’s case, the rearrangement of books in a cabinet behind his desk indicates the Kremlin has passed off old footage of meetings in his office as fresh video at least five times this year, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, has found.
Putin’s frequent one-on-one meetings with regional governors, government agency heads, and others in his office in the Kremlin’s Senate Palace are a staple of state TV news programs, part of an effort to show Russians that he is actively managing affairs across the country and keeping officials in line.
But five meetings presented as part of the current day’s events in April and May were actually recorded months earlier, Systema determined. The books in the glass-doored case are the giveaway: On five occasions, the footage showed an arrangement of books that was in place before it was changed in late February.
Among other changes in the February rearrangement, a forward-facing, bound copy of the Russian Constitution was moved from the right side of the cabinet to the left.
In addition to shedding light on Kremlin practices, the trickery raises questions about where Putin was — and what he was doing — on the days at issue.
Journalists have been aware for some time that Putin’s administration keeps footage “in the can” for use at a later date. The Kremlin closely guards information about the health and private life of Putin, 72, and when he disappears from the public eye for several days, TV reports are examined closely for signs of whether his whereabouts are being kept secret.
Four of the instances in which older footage was used this year came in the days before Putin met in St. Petersburg on April 11 with Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for US President Donald Trump who has come to Russia several times to discuss Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022.
Footage published on April 2 and April 7 showed Putin meeting with the head of the Buryatia region and the chief of Aeroflot, respectively, and video from April 9 and 10 showed him meeting separately with two other officials – all with the office bookshelf in its pre-February arrangement. Putin did not appear in public or at any group meeting or larger event from April 2 to 10.
Another use of pre-February footage occurred on May 12, when the Kremlin published video showing Putin meeting in his office with the governor of the Ivanovo region, Stanislav Voskresensky.
May 12 was the 42nd birthday of Alina Kabayeva, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics who is widely reported to be Putin’s longtime partner and the father of at least two children by him. Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, divorced in 2014.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to a message that Systema sent on Telegram seeking comment.
