A major flu outbreak hit Kremlin officials amid speculation Vladimir Putin will imminently go into isolation in a bunker a report said. The revelation of the flu sweeping Vladimir Putin's presidential team comes amid speculation that he is set to hide away by the New Year amid health and security concerns, The Mirror reported.
The Russian president has already cancelled his annual set-piece press conference this month, a first in ten years. Vladimir Putin's address to parliament is not ruled out this month, but the unusual unprompted Kremlin claim of his close officials being hit by flu may result in its cancellation, the report said. Novaya Gazeta Europe news outlet reported that “many people in the Kremlin were down with flu”, attributing the infection disclosure to Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Today Verstka media outlet reported that Vladimir Putin is likely to abandon his address to the upper house of parliament. The outlet also claimed that Vladimir Putin and his close family are to spend the annual New Year vacation in a bunker east of the Ural Mountains.