Russian president Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public since March 5, and his absence has led to speculation that the worst possible thing that could happen has indeed come to pass. While it is possible that the Russian leader may be suffering from a very bad case of indigestion or even the flu, it is apparently more interesting to imagine him laid out in a casket.
There is really little information to go on, and his press secretary, Dimitry Peskov, not one to give away any state secrets, has said simply that there is “no reason to worry” and “everything is fine.” So of course, this statement has led to the only conclusion available, Putin has died. This conclusion has been reached despite a Reuters report on March 11 that said Putin had cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan, possibly because of illness.
There is even a website that asks the question, “Has Putin died?” The automated responses vary, from “No, he hasn’t died yet.” to “No, that’s not why it stinks in Moscow.” But because people find the very notion rather unlikely, social media users have been speculating on what the world would be like without Putin, or better yet, what would heaven be like with him.
But perhaps the best site to view is a Twitter account, #ПутинУмер. Some of the responses on this site are serious in their worry that something may have happened to Putin, but here are a few responses that show what a world without Putin — or a heaven with him — might look like:
While there would have been a state funeral if president Putin had died, the question of how he would have been dressed came up. Would he have been attired in his favorite bare-chested uniform?
Undoubtedly, the biggest question would be, if Putin really were to die, “Would the outpouring of grief on state TV channels match the level of emotion shown when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died?”