Vladimir Putin hosted an eight-year-old girl in the Kremlin on Tuesday and had her join him in a strange phone call to his finance minister to ask for a budget subsidy for his home region of Dagestan, Sky News reported.

The Kremlin published a video in which Putin congratulates the little girl Raisat Akippova. All the photo shoots seem to aim to make him look caring, concerned and in control.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was initially puzzled by the call and did not respond to the girl’s greetings, but quickly agreed to additional funding for his home region in southern Russia.

“Perfectly!” Mr Putin replied, before telling the girl: “We have 5bn rubles (£43.7m) for Dagestan.”

The President smiled during the conversation and a similar call he and Raisat made to Prime Minister Mykhailo Misusin.

The episode followed Putin’s visit to Dagestan last week, when he unusually mingled with a large crowd.

The Kremlin called it evidence of the president’s “amazing” support in Russian society, days after a brief uprising by Wagner’s mercenary group prompted him to warn of the risk of civil war in Russia.

Putin told Raisat that he invited her and her parents to Moscow because he was “upset” to see a photo of her in tears after not seeing him during a trip to Dagestan.

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