Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is isolated due to possible exposure to the coronavirus, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Mr. Putin canceled a planned trip to Tajikistan this week for a security summit in Central Asia, the Kremlin said, describing a phone call Putin had with Emomali Rahmon, the Tajik president.
“Vladimir Putin said that, in relation to identified cases of coronavirus in his environment, he should observe personal isolation for a certain period of time,” the statement said.
Putin said earlier this year that he had been vaccinated with the two-dose regimen of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. But he has continued to take extraordinary care in his public appearances, often requiring people who find themselves in quarantine in advance.
Putin noted on Monday that he might have to isolate himself, although some Russian media interpreted his comments as a joke.
“Even around me, there are problems with this Covid thing,” he said in an informal conversation with Paralympic athletes at an event in the Kremlin broadcast by state media. “I think maybe I’ll have to do quarantine soon, myself.”
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that the president had been in close contact with several people who had tested positive for the virus. He said Mr Putin would continue to work while isolated by himself and expressed confidence that the vaccine would protect him from a serious case of the disease.
“We all know that the vaccine is guaranteed to protect you from serious consequences, but cases of illness are still possible,” Peskov said. “The president is absolutely healthy.”
Mr Putin was scheduled to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security group, on Friday. He will continue to attend the meeting, but will do so via a video link, the Kremlin said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also plan to address the remote meeting.
Mr Putin’s isolation, the first time he has taken this step due to potential exposure, underscores the continuity of the pandemic in Russia. Although Putin has said that Russia has handled the pandemic better than many Western countries, widespread hesitation and the use of lax masks have allowed the Delta variant of the coronavirus to spread largely uncontrollably.
The mortality officially reported by Russia for coronavirus has been essentially flat, since July, just below 800 deaths a day. The remarkable stability of the daily toll has led some analysts to question its veracity, although officials insist it is accurate.
Putin had several face-to-face events on Monday, as officials deliberated on whether he should go into quarantine. In addition to hosting Paralympic athletes, Putin on Monday met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally in the Middle East. The meeting with Mr al-Assad, Peskov said, took place “before the decision on the need for personal isolation was made”.
“No one’s health was endangered,” Peskov said.
Both Mr al-Assad and his wife, Asma, contracted the virus, but recovered quickly, officials said in March. On Tuesday, nothing was heard from Syria that al-Assad should isolate himself after the meeting with Putin.
“We are working together to solve the most important problem facing all of humanity today: the fight against coronavirus infection,” Putin told al-Assad, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Tuesday. “I hope that, with our joint efforts, we can help the Syrian people to put themselves back in every sense of the word.”
Russia intervened in support of Mr al-Assad in the Syrian civil war in 2015 and turned the conflict around in his favor, amid strong criticism from human rights groups for a brutal bombing campaign. Russia delivered to Syria in July 250,000 doses of its unique vaccine against Sputnik Light.
Ivan Nechepurenko has provided reports.