Vladimir Putin to meet with Kyrgyzstan president on Monday, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin's rare disappearance from the public eye this week has stirred a flurry of speculation online, but signs emerged Friday that the leader may be making a comeback soon.

The Kremlin said that Putin will meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan on Monday, and Russian state television broadcast footage which it said was of Putin meeting supreme court chairman VyacheslavLebedev Friday at his residence near Moscow.

• Putin's spokesman denies rumours of ill health
• Who is left to challenge Putin?

In the footage, Putin was shown in his office at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, where he conducts many of his meetings, sitting across a table from Supreme Court head Vyacheslav Lebedev and talking about plans to reform the judicial system.

Dressed in grey suit and a blue patterned tie, he looked in no way different from usual. In the brief footage, he was shown nodding and smiling as Lebedev spoke and could be heard saying a few words about the court system.

Since a Kremlin announcement earlier this weekthat Putin would be postponing an upcoming trip to Kazakhstan, rumours have appeared online that he may be ill, sidelined by internal conflict or perhaps planning a major domestic political move.

But his spokesman DmitryPeskov shrugged off speculation Thursday, telling The Associated Press that the 62-year-oldPutin's "health is really perfect."

The planned meeting on Monday in St. Petersburg with Almazbek Atambaev is to discuss Kyrgyzstan's joining the Eurasian Economic Union, a nascent Moscow-led trade bloc that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, the Kremlin said in a Friday statement.