Media Report On Shoigu's Disappearance

• 23.03.2022, 12:11

The head of the Russian Defence Ministry has not been seen in public for 12 days.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has stopped appearing in public since March 11, which is 12 days now, nv.ua reported.

The last time the head of the Russian Defence Ministry appeared in the news was on March 11. The ministry said then that Shoygu had held a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar.

On the same day, the Defence Ministry released a video showing Shoygu visiting the Mandryk Central Military Clinical Hospital, where he presented state awards to Russian servicemen who had fought against Ukraine.

On March 18, Shoigu was mentioned in a message on the Kremlin website, which said that Vladimir Putin had discussed with the permanent members of the Security Council "the progress of the special operation in Ukraine". According to the report, Shoygu was present at the meeting. No video or photos from the meeting were published.

On the same day, First Channel broadcast a report on Shoygu presenting awards. The story said that the event had taken place "today", but the picture in the story matched the video published on the website of the Ministry of Defence on March 11.

The latest news item on Shoigu's profile on the Defence Ministry's website was also dated March 11.

Prior to that, events involving Shoigu personally occurred every few days.

Shoigu's entourage is discussing that he is not well - heart problems, an acquaintance of the Russian minister told reporters. The agency was not able to get a prompt comment from the Defence Ministry - all the press service phone numbers listed on the agency's website did not answer on Wednesday morning.

In addition, there were no reports about events involving the head of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valeriy Gerasimov, after March 11. On that day, the TASS website reported that Gerasimov had held talks with his Turkish counterpart Yashar Guler.