In Kremlin stunt, Putin and girl, 8, lobby minister for budget funds

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Raisat Akipova, an 8-year-old girl from Derbent, who failed to see the head of state during his working trip to the Republic of Dagestan, where he also talked with local residents, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 4, 2023. Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted an eight-year-old girl in the Kremlin on Tuesday and got her to join him in a bizarre phone call to his finance minister to ask for a budget grant for her home region.

The Kremlin released video of Putin welcoming the girl, Raisat Akipova, in the latest of a series of appearances since a brief armed mutiny last month that seem designed to show him as caring, concerned and in control.