Since the beginning of 2026, state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti, as well as Interfax, have sharply reduced the number of news stories about Vladimir Putin. He should From the agency’s accounts.
In February, TASS mentioned Putin in its Telegram channel 166 times compared to 387 times the previous year, in March – 235 times (a year ago – 506), in April – 262 times (a year ago – 429).
RIA Novosti mentioned Putin 129 times in January, compared to 207 times in the same month last year. In February, the agency’s Telegram channel published 105 stories mentioning Putin, and in February 2025 there were 328 stories.
In February, the Interfax channel published 31 posts about Putin; A year ago, the agency talked about it 109 times a month.
The number of posts began to decline immediately after Russian authorities reported a Ukrainian drone attack on Putin’s residence in Valdai. The authorities announced it at the end of 2025, and Ukraine described these reports as “lies,” and US President Donald Trump said that he did not believe such a strike had occurred. Meanwhile, a project source close to the Kremlin believes that Putin at the time was very concerned about his safety.
As it was before books Agency: Putin practically stopped traveling to the Russian regions. As of May 21, Putin’s last trip to the Russian region (outside the regions where the main presidential residences are now located) was a one-day visit to Samara on November 6, 2025. For a long time, the President of the Russian Federation has not traveled abroad. After visiting Turkmenistan in December 2025, Putin only traveled abroad in May, traveling to China to meet with Xi Jinping.
At the beginning of May, several media outlets (Important Stories, CNN, Financial Times), citing an intelligence report from one of the European countries, wrote that the body responsible for the security of the Russian president had significantly strengthened protection measures for Vladimir Putin due to his fear of a possible assassination attempt. The report indicates that Putin spends several weeks at a time in modern hideouts, especially in the Krasnodar region. Neither he nor his family go to housing in the Moscow and Valdai region anymore.