Putin addresses crowd of one person from a lectern in latest 'weird' Kremlin moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet again been filmed acting in a strange way, this time while giving an address in the Kremlin.

The 70-year-old was congratulating Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, on the 60th anniversary of her flight and was speaking from a lectern, as if he were in front of a crowd.

However, Tereshkova is sitting alone at a table in front of him, and nobody else appears to be in the room, bar a few members of staff in the back of the shot.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The odd behaviour was initially published by the Kremlin. Social media users were left confused by the strange setup.

“Comedy gold,” said one person.

Another replied: “Looks like it’s holding him up.”

That comment was seemingly referring to reports which circulated in the early stages of Russia’s war on Ukraine last year that Putin was suffering from a long-term illness. However, the reports have never been confirmed or verified.

Tereshkova, 86, flew a solo mission on the Vostok 6 spacecraft on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission. She is now a member of the Russian parliament.

Putin was speaking as the war continued to intensify. Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive against Russian-held areas in recent weeks.

Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister, said over the weekend that the most active fighting was no longer around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, but in the south of the country in the direction of the two coastal cities of Berdiansk and Mariupol.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.