Vladimir Putin Goes Into Hiding? Public Appearances Slashed by 24% as Discontent Peaks

Vladimir Putin has sharply reduced his public appearances in Russia over the past three months, with one analyst estimating a 24% drop, just as discontent over the war in Ukraine, internet shutdowns and new surveillance measures reaches its highest point since the full-scale invasion began.

Vladimir Putin has spent more than four years framing the war in Ukraine as a long game that Russia could afford to grind out. On state TV, victories were trumpeted and setbacks downplayed. But in recent weeks, some of his most loyal pro‑war voices have started to sound less like cheerleaders and more like alarm bells, openly questioning the Kremlin's strategy, competence and even its grip on power.

The immediate catalyst has been a punishing run of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Russian territory, in particular on oil export infrastructure and defence plants. According to Russian commentators, the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, a key oil terminal, has been hit repeatedly.

Alongside that, Russian advances on the battlefield have largely stalled, with analysts cited in the same reports speaking of catastrophic losses of 8,000 or more troops a week.

Pro‑War Supporters Turn On Vladimir Putin

One of the most striking voices has been Aleksandr Sladkov, a prominent state television propagandist and military commentator, who spoke after five days of what he called unhindered Ukrainian strikes on Ust-Luga. On air, he said Russia had been 'kicked in the balls again,' and remarked that the port was burning 'again.' It is crude language for a state TV figure, and it reflected something close to open ridicule of the leadership.

Sladkov also appeared to mock Putin personally, likening him to Baldrick, the hapless schemer from the British comedy Blackadder, while questioning the Kremlin's much‑vaunted 'cunning plan' in Ukraine. 'What kind of cunning plan is this,' he asked, 'which sees our businesses swatted like flies with a flyswatter?' Coming from a man whose career rests on bolstering the war effort, that is not a minor wobble. It is a public slap.

Yuriy Podolyaka, widely described as Russia's biggest pro‑war 'Z‑blogger' on Telegram, has been similarly unsparing. He told his followers he did not believe Russia would be able to 'turn the tide' in the next few months and acknowledged that Ukraine was 'very, very serious' and 'very fast-learning, much faster than we are.' It sounds bleak, but it also sounds like honesty, and that is precisely what the Kremlin has tried to keep off the airwaves since 2022.

Maksim Kalashnikov, a hardline commentator normally associated with nationalist positions, went further still, arguing that Russia's ruling class now sees Putin as 'a toxic figure, not even an asset, but a liability.' In his telling, the elite want the war over and a return to the 'old good times,' with free travel to the West, no sanctions and access to European energy markets.

Front‑Line Anger And Fears Of A Coup Against Vladimir Putin

Even among ideological loyalists, the mood at the front seems increasingly brittle. Alexander Dugin, the extreme nationalist thinker often portrayed as a spiritual guru of Putinism, said he had visited troops and found them in 'a frenzied rage combined with despair.'

He admitted he 'didn't expect everything to be so harsh and serious.' That choice of words matters. For years, Dugin has romanticised Russian sacrifice. Conceding that rage and despair now dominate suggests a strain that propaganda cannot easily plaster over.

Grigory Kubatyan, a military correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Putin's favoured newspapers, has broken another taboo by saying out loud that the war may need to be ended through talks.

'The war must be won or ended to save lives,' he said, before adding that in the last four years Russia had not been able, or had not wanted, to win. His conclusion was blunt. 'We'll have to negotiate. It's impossible to wage war indefinitely.' He praised the heroism of front-line troops but reminded viewers they 'are human beings, and they need rest.'

On the home front, the Kremlin is flirting with measures that look almost designed to antagonise people. Reports say Putin plans to use 1 April, April Fool's Day, to push through a ban on Telegram, the messaging app that has become central to Russian political and social life. One online commenter compared it to Gorbachev's ill‑fated alcohol crackdown, calling it 'as mad' and hinting that it could be politically suicidal.

In place of Telegram, Russians are being steered towards MAX, described as a surveillance tool overseen by the FSB security agency and, crucially, owned by a member of Putin's family. Combined with restrictions on mobile internet in Moscow and other regions blamed vaguely on 'security fears,' it has fuelled speculation that the Kremlin is more worried about a coup than about Western spies.

Political analyst Farida Rustamova has linked Putin's reduced visibility to this rising anger. She argued that his absence was especially striking amid public frustration over mobile internet shutdowns, the blocking of Telegram and even the mass culling of livestock in Siberia over disease concerns. In her words, Putin's silence and the unusually broad discontent 'may end up becoming a toxic combination for the regime.'