Putin appears in public for first time since March 5

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Kremlin in Moscow, in this March 5, 2015 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

STRELNA, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin met Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on Monday, making his first public appearance since March 5.

Putin met Atambayev in the Constantine Palace, outside Russia's second city of St. Petersburg.

Commenting on suggestions that he had been forced to lie low because of ill health, Putin said that life without rumors would be boring.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev also vouched for the Russian leader's health, saying that Putin "just now drove me around the grounds, he himself sat at the wheel" after they met in St Petersburg.

"It would be boring without gossip," Putin, looking relaxed if pale, told reporters.

Putin's absence from public view had triggered a number of theories about the leader, ranging from him suffering poor health to being toppled in a palace coup by security hawks.