[nuconvert]

If he truly does meet with them, I’m sticking with a previous guess....that he had surgery that he doesn’t want to make public.

[goldstategop]

He looks really dead, Jim:

From today's meeting

[gleeaikin]

Does he look a little puffy and palid, subtle difference from earlier photos? My previous guess was that it might have something to do with arrangements to bypass Ukraine with fuel pipeline, through Turkey or elsewhere.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-93X0XkMRYos/U2S8UXBfyHI/AAAAAAAAVBk/IZtv-MOxGuM/s1600/rs-150.gif

I tried to put the above map of Russia and surrounding countries in this comment, but could only manage this link.

Here is a link for major gas fields in Russia:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OUrl4_TEldw/TN0-hDHdsGI/AAAAAAAAAxM/EIBkBuqqKbw/s640/RUS_gasmap2.gif

It appears that provided Georgia will allow pipelines to cross from Russia into Turkey, then it would make sense for Russia to negotiate running a pipeline across the north west corner of Kazakhstan. It also makes sense to run through Belarus. So, perhaps both of our guesses are correct, and Putin would also like two pipelines.