Vladimir Putin appears in Mariupol at night

The Russian President’s surprise visit to the Donbass is making headlines in all the country’s newspapers. Arrived in the middle of the Crimean night, filmed with confidence at the wheel of a car, the master of the Kremlin came to see, he said, the progress of the reconstruction work. A spontaneous visit, affirms the entourage of the president, who went to meet certain inhabitants, visibly handpicked. “It’s a little piece of paradise”, enthused a resident. Residents then show off their new home, built in an emergency by Russian contractors. The image is intended to be reassuring.

Giving the feeling that life is getting back to normal

It is however far from reality, that of a city completely destroyed by intense bombardments, occupied and annexed since May by Russia. Ukrainians condemned the visit as cynical. President Vladimir Putin also visited a renovated local theatre. The power wants to give the feeling that life is going back to normal, says Lukas Aubin, research director at Iris, specialist in Russia.

Barely returned from Donbass, Vladimir Putin opens a new important sequence on Monday: the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he hopes to continue his strategic cooperation. “A new era for Russia”, says the Kremlin.