Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, called the growing speculation that the president had fallen ill “wishful thinking” more indicative of Western fears than a state of doom in Russia. Other commentators offered a darker explanation, drawing parallels with a stunt in 1564. “Recall how Ivan the Terrible unexpectedly vanished from Moscow to make his subjects realise how ‘bad’ it was to live without him… in what looked like a ploy to strengthen support for his rule as he contemplated new drastic measures,” noted Simon Saradzhyan, assistant director of the US-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism at Harvard’s Belfer Centre. Mr Putin is due to meet the President of Kyrgyzstan in St Petersburg on Monday. Vladimir Putin missing: Rumours suggest president has flu and is lying low at Valdai outside Moscow Sunday March 15 th , 2015 at 4:36 PM - Europe RSS Feed 1 Share It may not be quite what his admirers wanted to hear,