The gleaming halls of the Kremlin are now the scene of meetings the likes of which have not been held there for a long time.

After hours of talks with guests, President Vladimir Putin appears before the press, narrows his eyes, becomes gruff, and complains that the West is disregarding Russia's concerns.

That looks menacing and doesn't seem to go with the protestations that they have no plans to attack Ukraine.

One thing Putin has already achieved with the troop deployment on the borders of Ukraine and on the annexed Crimea: on many forums people are talking about his ultimate demands for "security guarantees" from Washington and NATO, and there is speculation about what will happen if Russian pressure is not given in wonders how Putin thinks what he wants, at what cost.

This is how Russia's president takes on his parade role:

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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It is also a return for Putin.

He leaves his residence in Nowo-Ogaryovo in the west of the capital for the meetings in the Kremlin.

There are residential areas built in coniferous forests.

The clean air makes it a place of longing, the proximity to Putin makes it a must-do for the elite.

One hides one's wealth behind high fences and walls, which one can only enjoy as long as the ruler allows it.

Even when Putin is physically close to his top personnel, he seems distant, isolated, lost.

More than ever during the pandemic: the President instructs the officials from the government, regions and state-owned companies, mostly in video conferences, and one cannot be entirely sure whether he is actually taking them out of his residence in Sochi on the Black Sea.

Now, in the crisis

Putin emerges from his seclusion - and yet remains in his own world.

In a bubble that shields and strengthens him.

This also makes the situation unpredictable and dangerous.

When visitors arrive, Putin is driven into central Moscow along wide streets closed to his fast-moving black column filled with bodyguards.

In the Kremlin, Putin's servants, other bodyguards and advisers await on reflective wooden floors.

In contrast, guests, ushered through back entrances and corridors where carpets swallow their footsteps, feel tiny in front of the host and history.

In the pandemic, they are also intruders into what the Russian side has explained to French President Emmanuel Macron's companions as a "strict health bubble" surrounding Putin.

It had already been noticed earlier that at Putin's appointments, the same people, presumably secret service employees, often mimed as extras attending church services or workers.

Now real Russian visitors who are allowed to meet Putin for awards, for example, have to quarantine.

With “exhaustive security measures”, the Kremlin explains that the president, who will be 70 in October and whose protection is the only priority, never wears a mask in public.