Cancellation of 'Bunker Grandpa' Putin's annual address draws mockery in Central Asia

ALMATY -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision not to hold his annual end-of-year news conference has drawn mockery in Central Asia and abroad.

"There will not be [a news conference] before the New Year," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on December 12.

He added that Putin "regularly speaks to the press, including on foreign visits".

Putin, who has been in power since 2000, has held a news conference in December most years of his rule.

During the media gathering -- a major political event in the country -- Putin takes questions from the press and the public in a marathon that usually lasts several hours.

Last year, he spoke for more than four hours.

Peskov gave no reason for the break with tradition, the first in 10 years.

Preparations for Putin's news conference were in progress, but the president decided at the last minute to cancel the event, The Moscow Times reported, citing government officials.

The Kremlin feared that Kyiv might stage a major attack ahead of the event, and there was no guarantee or confidence that Russian security agencies would be able to stop it, the report said.

Putin at such events typically takes the opportunity to recount his regime's achievements.

But this year, he is facing the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine, now entering its 11th month.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 and announced a mobilisation to prop up Moscow's flailing forces there on September 21.

'He has nothing to say'

"Putin may not be confident in his ability to justify the cost of his war upon Russian domestic and global affairs when addressing the Russian public and elites," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think-tank, said in a December 14 report.

Russian forces were forced to retreat from occupied areas in northern Ukraine, and have failed to control areas they annexed earlier this year.

Discontent is also rife at home over Putin's partial mobilisation.

Putin does not want to look like a loser, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a YouTube interview on December 14, referring to the cancellation of the news conference.

"He has nothing to say ... if there were some limited successes, you could highlight them, and touch up all the failures, but he has achieved a situation where he has nothing to say at all," said Arestovich.

Putin also has little to brag about in terms of socio-economic gains.

"Putin doesn't even have anything to promise retirees, who traditionally believe [in him]. Their pensions have not been adjusted up lately, and pension payments have even been delayed," he said.

Putin's image worldwide has deteriorated since the start of the invasion.

Politico, in its annual ranking of the most influential people in Europe, nicknamed Putin "The Loser".

"Putin has long yearned to restore Russia to the great-power status it held during the Soviet period," the newspaper said.

"Instead, his incursion has relegated his country to third-rate status, unable to overcome an opponent [Russia] underestimated and held in contempt."

In Central Asia, Putin's image as a strongman has been replaced by that of a "bunker grandpa", a term that has stuck on social networks.

Putin does not even inspire his own army, said Yerlan Ismailov, a blogger from Astana.

"We often see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the epicentre of events. He is either in Kyiv during an attack, or in liberated cities. He personally supports his soldiers and the enemy's victims," said Ismailov.

"But Putin leads the army from his bunker."

'They are losers'

Attempts to undo that change in perception have floundered.

Recent visits of Putin to troops have been aimed at showing the public that "the military leadership is fixing the Russian military's devastating failures", ISW noted in another report published December 18.

That report came a day after Putin visited the joint headquarters of troops involved in the so-called "special military operation".

"Russian military leadership is engaged in a campaign to present itself as part of an effective wartime apparatus in an effort to address the public perception of Russian failures in Ukraine," the ISW analysis said.

While Zelenskyy's daily visits with soldiers in combat zones are hardly news now, Putin's public relations move was trumpeted as a top news story in Russia, Arestovich, the Ukrainian presidential adviser, noted in a later YouTube interview.

"[Putin] met with soldiers, dipped into the atmosphere, held a piece of paper in front of his eyes for about 10 seconds and pretended to be able to read the map," he said.

Putin did not visit a combat zone, as the Kremlin media try to claim, but rather the General Staff's situation centre in Moscow, said Arestovich.

These propaganda campaigns will not help the Kremlin improve its credibility, said activist Syymik Kolbayev of Bishkek.

"To the whole world, they are aggressors. And to their former supporters, they are losers."

"And that can't be fixed, no matter how you spin it," he said.