President Putin appeared healthy in the brief footage shown on Russian TV
Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared in public for the first time since 5 March, quelling intense speculation about his health.
He was meeting Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev in St Petersburg.
Commenting on the rumours about his health, Mr Putin said "things would be boring without gossip", RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Earlier, Mr Putin ordered Russia's navy on to a state of full combat readiness in the Arctic.
Russia says the navy drills involve 56 warships, planes and 38,000 personnel.
The Kyrgyz president met Mr Putin in a sumptuous tsarist palace
The Russian TV news channel Rossiya 24 showed some brief footage of Mr Putin at the meeting, without sound.
According to a tweet from the meeting in St Petersburg, Mr Atambayev said that Mr Putin "just took me for a little drive - he was at the wheel - nearby here, and I can confirm that he's in excellent form".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov - quoted in a Russian journalist's tweet - said St Petersburg was chosen as a convenient venue for Mr Atambayev, whose daughter is studying there.
Mr Peskov was also quoted as saying the "little drive" mentioned by the Kyrgyz leader lasted about 20 minutes, and Mr Putin "showed what a beautiful place Strelnya is" - the leaders were meeting at a tsarist palace in Strelnya, outside St Petersburg.
Mr Putin's unusually long absence from public view had sparked a flurry of rumours. There were suggestions that he might be seriously ill, that he might be facing a revolt inside the Kremlin or even that he might have been attending the birth of a love child.
The rumours started after a trip to Kazakhstan, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, was postponed. His last public appearance was on 5 March when he met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Crimea anniversary
His reappearance coincides with the first anniversary of a controversial referendum in Crimea, which Russia used as justification for annexing the Ukrainian peninsula.
In a pre-recorded interview which aired on Sunday, Mr Putin said he had been ready to put nuclear weapons on standby at the time.
The warship Pyotr Veliky in Severomorsk: Russia is testing combat capabilities in the Arctic
The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, issued a sharp statement on Crimea on Monday, condemning Russia's actions.
"The EU reaffirms its deep concern at the continuous military build-up and deterioration of the human rights situation in the Crimean peninsula, including the denial of free speech and the persecution of persons belonging to minorities," she said in a statement.
Ms Mogherini said the EU "will remain committed to fully implement its non-recognition policy, including through restrictive measures".
Russia's Arctic military drills come amid heightened tensions with Nato over Russia's military involvement in eastern Ukraine, where an uneasy truce is in place between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government troops.
Nato has sent extra forces to the three Baltic states, which have large Russian minorities and were ruled from Moscow in the Cold War.
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