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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin being enthusiastically greeted by crowds after a turbulent week for Moscow has widely circulated online.
The Russian leader was filmed meeting members of the public in the Republic of Dagestan, surrounded by cheers as he shook hands with those waiting for his arrival. In one clip, a girl who appears to be of school age spoke eagerly to the Kremlin chief and snapped a photo with Putin as he kissed her head.
Putin traveled to the city of Derbent, which is Russia's most southern city, for a meeting with local officials about tourism, the Kremlin said.
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The footage was also shared by a Russian state television reporter, and the message Putin "meant to send out is clear," BBC Monitoring journalist Francis Scarr wrote on Twitter. The videos are intended to show that "things are back to normal" and that the Russian people supported Putin's rule, he added.
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"Using all kinds of methods for a desperately needed reputation boost?" Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's internal ministry, wrote on Twitter, sharing footage of Putin in Dagestan.
During a meeting with Putin, Dagestan's leader, Sergey Melikov, said there "is not a single person in Dagestan who did not support the decisions made by the leadership of the Russian Federation that were made on June 24 this year."
"I had no doubts what the reaction in Dagestan and the entire country would be," Putin added in remarks reported by Russian state media.
On June 24, fighters under Wagner Group mercenary leader and long-time Putin ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, seized the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and set off towards Moscow in what they called a "march for justice." Prigozhin said the previous day that the Russian military had targeted Wagner positions in Ukraine, where the private militia has played a key role in Moscow's invasion efforts.
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But the Wagner troops abruptly halted their advance towards the capital after a deal reportedly brokered by Belarus was agreed. Under the deal, Prigozhin would leave for Belarus and escape criminal charges.
The armed uprising drew fierce condemnation from Moscow, with Putin vowing that those who organized the rebellion would "answer for it."
But the Kremlin quickly downplayed the questions the mutiny raised about Putin's leadership, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying on Tuesday that it had "shown how consolidated society is around the president."
Western analysts and Ukrainian officials have said the mutiny threatened the Russian leadership, with "cracks" showing through, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Sunday.
"We have all sorts of new questions that Putin is going to have to address in the weeks and months ahead," he added to NBC. British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, described the armed rebellion as an "unprecedented challenge to President Putin's authority," and U.S. President Joe Biden said it was "part of a struggle within the Russian system."
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